Coming Around Again
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: The fateful and almost fatal devestation that centered the birth of their son was a time that would mark in everyone's minds forever. Franklin Richards' journey to life isn't easy. ReedSue. Cowritten with Alexandizzie4eva
1. Chapter 1: Nothing Stays The Same

_**Title: Coming Around Again.  
Pairing: Reed/Sue  
Written by: Angel-death-dealer (Sammy) and Alexandizzie4eva (Maria)**_

**_For those of you who are comic fans as well as movie fans, this story is probably one that you'll enjoy. Remember the lovely fiasco surrounding Franklin's birth? Well, here it is. We've left out the busines with the negative zone so that it fits more for a Sue and Reed romance fic, but there's a moments with Johnny and their father, Sue and Johnny, and the others and Ben. Everyone's here in this fic, and everyone's affected. So, this is an ongoing fic, as it was originally designed to be a one-shot, but came out as eleven chapters worth. We didn't want to condense any of it down though, so this story is focusing closely on the week surrounding Franklin's birth.  
Enjoy!  
Sammy and Maria.  
xxxxxx

* * *

_****_Chapter 1._**

_I know nothing stays the same,  
But if you're willing to play the game,  
We'll be coming around again.  
So don't mind if I fall apart,  
There's more room in a broken heart. _

I believe in love,  
What else can I do?  
I'm so in love with you.

(Lyrics from Carly Simon's Coming Around Again.)

* * *

Up until that moment, she hadn't actually panicked. Through the seemingly endless trimesters, she'd not once been worried about experiencing the pain, or anything else that could or might happen. Oh no, she was Susan Storm. For women all over the world, she was strength personified, they looked up to her like a role model these days, and nothing was supposed to scare her. She could handle childbirth - _right_? Well, that's what she'd _first _thought. Now, second thoughts were plaguing her, and even though she wished them all away, it didn't take her long to realise that she wasn't in control anymore. Up until that moment, she hadn't actually panicked. Through the seemingly endless trimesters, she'd not once been worried about experiencing the pain, or anything else that could or might happen. Oh no, she was Susan Storm. For women all over the world, she was strength personified, they looked up to her like a role model these days, and nothing was supposed to scare her. She could handle childbirth - ? Well, that's what she'd thought. Now, second thoughts were plaguing her, and even though she wished them all away, it didn't take her long to realise that she wasn't in control anymore. 

She hadn't panicked when the contractions first hit her, less than an hour after Reed and Ben had left to give a university lecture. She hadn't even panicked when her water had broken all over the front seat of her brother's new car, even though he had started panicking at this point. She hadn't panicked, either, when they had pulled up to the hospital, and the nurses had all but thrown her into a wheelchair, shouting out to make way for her. The panic hadn't even set in when, after the sixth attempt at calling Reed or Ben's cell phone, Johnny finally got through to them and discovered that an accident in the city centre had most of the city in a gridlock, preventing them from getting to the hospital.

She was able to pinpoint the exact moment when the panic finally grasped her, but by then, she had realised that it wasn't something that had hit her with surprise, but instead something that had been slowly building upon her the entire time. When they had hastened down the corridor, with Johnny at her side desperately trying to reach his brother-in-law, and when they went into the delivery room for the first time, Sue started to feel uncertainty for the first time. Yet she didn't understand it as pure panic until they began taking blood samples, and preparing her for delivery - the same time when she realised that Reed should have definitely been there.

But he had to be there.

He said he would be there.

He wanted to be there.

He'd _promised _to be there.

Taking Reed's place, Johnny remained at her side the entire time whilst they waited, agonisingly in Sue's case, for Reed to arrive. In all honesty, the childbirth 'thing', as he called it, was freaking him out, and he'd much rather be at home on his X-Box, as he had been half an hour ago, but he knew that he couldn't leave his sister alone at a time like this. She'd kill him before he got to the door. Another contraction hit, undoubtedly the worst yet from her cries, and when it had finally passed, Sue's head rolled back onto the pillow that had been propped behind her. Her eyes found Johnny's, and he was shocked to find them tear-filled from the pain.

"You okay?" He asked stupidly. He knew that childbirth was meant to hurt; after all, she was pushing a baby out of her body, what could be painless about that? However, to make Sue cry was an achievement for anything. She could watch all the soppy romantic movies...Ghost, Beaches, Titanic...and not shed a tear. Now, however, she wasn't even holding back as tears flooded her eyes.

"It hurts." She croaked up at him.

Johnny bit his lip, not knowing what he could do to make her feel better. He wasn't a doctor, and he definitely knew nothing about babies. What could he do to help? Cracking jokes was hardly appropriate, and, even though it was something he did best, he felt that now wasn't the time to poke holes in Reed's ego. "I know it hurts." He nodded, stalling for time whilst he thought of something to do. Remembering what he had seen on television once, he held out his hand. "You wanna squeeze my hand?" He offered hesitantly, not wanting the sound of pain in the room to be his own instead, but at the same time, wanting to help his sister.

She looked at his extended hand for a moment, and from the despair in her eyes, he knew that she was wishing it was Reed at her side. Even though Johnny was completely out of his element, but still trying his hardest to do what he could, he wasn't Reed, and this, at the end of the day, was an experience she was meant to be sharing with Reed. He was her husband; he was supposed to be there. She was supposed to be shouting at him, screaming that he was never coming within a mile of her again for the pain this was causing her. But he wasn't there.

But Johnny was. Even though he wasn't her husband, he was her brother, and he was there. He was the little brother who had, for the most part of his childhood and teenage years, been raised with Sue as his maternal figure. He was the little boy who would fall of his bike, and sheepishly seek out help even though someone would say '_I told you so'_. He was the little boy who acted first, and thought later, the boy who thought about himself first, and rarely anyone else, but he was still there, at her side, when no one else was. He was her brother, and for the first time in what felt like forever, he acting more like that than simply being annoying to his elder sister. He was helping her, and he was genuinely trying.

She lifted her arm from where it rested on the mattress beneath her, and took his hand. She squeezed it tightly, even though there was no contraction, just to assure herself that someone was there with her. He clutched her hand back, just as tightly, realising that this was their most intimate sibling moment since their mothers funeral, when they were both so young, and he had stood at her side, holding her hand so tightly he would have apologized for almost breaking it had he spoken to anyone that day.

"Chin up, okay?" He encouraged her, giving her the most assuring smile that he could. "It'll all be done soon, you heard the docs."

She had heard the doctors, but they hadn't said what Johnny told her. Her contractions were still at least five minutes apart, and she knew that it was going to get a lot worse in terms of pain. Every contraction was harder to work through than the one before, and they were steadily getting closer together. However, she was only three centimetres dilated, and she needed to be at ten before she could start pushing. It was going to be a long wait, and they both knew that, however she could see why Johnny was telling her otherwise. Where was the comfort in telling her that she might as well get comfy in her bed because she wasn't going anywhere?

"Where's Reed?" She asked him quietly, without looking around her. Even though she was asking, she knew that he wasn't in the room. She didn't have to look around to know that. He wasn't there. He'd be at her side for there.

"He's on his way." Johnny told her, for what felt like the thousandth time already. "Rock-brain's bringing him now."

He'd been expecting her usual chastising for insulting Ben, but it never came. There was no scolding tone from her, as instead, she released a deep, shaking breath as she prepared herself for the pain which she was now expecting at any moment. She bit her lip, so hard that she thought she could taste blood for a moment, and as she screwed up her eyes, tears began to fall rapidly from her cheeks, sending Johnny into even more of a panic. "I can't do this without him, Johnny." She almost whimpered, inhaling a sob afterwards.

"Yes, you can." He said firmly, trying to forget the unease in his mind when she started crying.

"I _won't_." She shook her head. "This is _his _baby, he should be here!" She protested.

"Aw, Hell, Sue!" Johnny told her wildly as she started to groan her way through another contraction, her breath hissing through her tightly clenched jaw. "Don't start the 'it's his baby' stuff. Reed's the reason why you're in this much pain in the first place!" He pointed out.

"Johnny!" She scolded, in the tone he had expected a moment ago. "Not helping!"

* * *

"I should be there." 

"You'll be there."

Much the same argument was taking place on the other side of the city, where Ben and Reed were currently stuck in the back of a taxi-cab. All around them, cars were blaring their horns, some even getting out of their cars and walking further ahead to see what was going on. But there was no movement in the cars. In the front of their cab, the radio was turned up higher than usual, as the driver tried to listen out for any clue as to what was causing the hold up, but Reed wasn't listening to it, or the random chart songs that were playing in between news updates. No, he was more worried about Sue, and why he wasn't with her.

When the call from Johnny, which had, apparently, been his sixth attempt, had come through on Ben's cell phone, they had demanded that the cab be turned around mid-journey. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Ben had been amused to hear the two siblings squabbling on the other end of the phone, arguing about Sue's water breaking on Johnny's passenger seat. However, the cab couldn't turn around, because there was a tremendous flaw in their seemingly perfect plan to meet the pair at the hospital, and that was the massive traffic accident which seemed to have put a stop to the entire inner city.

Reed was getting antsy now, constantly squirming in his seat in the back of the cab, which hadn't moved for twenty minutes now. Somewhere ahead of them, a diversion was being set up, but with all of the cars around them taking the diversions, they wouldn't make it to the hospital before sundown, let alone before the baby was born.

"This isn't right." He complained for the twelfth time. "I should be with her."

Ben shrugged. "At least she's not on her own." He pointed out. "Johnny's with her."

Reed frowned. "Is that a good thing?" He wondered under his breath. Johnny never really handled intense situations with anything less than his annoying wit.

"Let's hope so." Ben grimaced. "I mean, this is his sister, and his niece or nephew that we're talking about. He's not going to be standing there making wisecracks, is he?"

* * *

"I mean, it could be worse." Johnny pointed out to Sue as she clenched his hand, the contraction fading into nothing but the dull and constant pain. "He could be standing there holding a camcorder up-" 

"Johnny! Not helping!"

* * *

"I said I'd be there with her." Reed scolded himself, leaning forward in the back of the cab. He groaned loudly into his hands, accompanied by a simple thud when his head hit the back of the front seat. Somewhere, across the other side of the city, his wife was going into labour with their first child, and it didn't look like he was going to see that happen. 

He should have known that she was showing sings of labour when he had left that morning. The midwife had warned them about the fact that, shortly before going into labour, pregnant women often got an unexplainable surge of energy. When Reed had woken up that morning, at half past six, Sue had already cleaned the entire apartment, which was still massive in size, and a nightmare to clean. Then, over breakfast, she admitted that there was a peculiar feeling that accompanied the baby's kicks that morning, which were already stronger than usual. He'd been concerned that the baby was kicking stronger, but when he suggested that he miss the lecture and reschedule it, Sue had insisted that it was just the baby complaining about the housework she'd made it endure with her, and had all but forced him out of the door when it was time to leave.

He should have known. She was already a week past her due date, and speaking with the midwife every day as she monitored the changes. They'd had her bag packed for a month now, sitting ready by the front door, and waiting for the sudden moment when the baby started to arrive. He wondered whether they had remembered to take it. Johnny certainly wouldn't have remembered, but Sue might have, as long as she'd been thinking clearly. Considering the time she had spent packing, and then re-packing, the bag, it didn't seem plausible that she would forget it.

He should have known.

He should have stayed with her.

His eyes fell out the window again, trying to focus on anything except the inside of his palms, which, with any justice should be currently being squeezed completely out of shape by Sue's hands. The side door of the cab opened, and a man got out of it, swearing all sorts of profanities as he looked at his watch impatiently. An idea dawned on Reed, and he felt stupid for not thinking of it before.

Reaching into his wallet, he pulled out some money, not counting how much was there, and passed it through to the front of the cab. Clearly, he had overpaid, because the driver look at it as if Reed were handing over a gold brick to him. Then, under Ben's confused look, he got out of the cab.

"Whoa, where are you going?" Ben asked him.

"To the hospital." He said simply, before taking off down the street, leaving Ben to follow him as quickly as he could.


	2. Chapter 2: Willing To Play The Game

**Hi everyone, hope you're enjoying the story! Please review if you have any comments because me and Maria have spent so many weeks working on this story, and we were a little sad to only get one review when we'd had over two hundred hits to the story. So, please leave any comments you have! They are always much appreciated!  
Sammy and Maria  
xxxxx**

**Chapter 2:**

"And remember that time when me and Ben made that hole in the wall? That was great; even _you _have to admit that. But we didn't mean for it to lead into your room and all."

Sue looked up at him wearily. She had been in labour for an hour now, and whilst she hadn't become any further dilated, and her contractions constant at three minutes apart, she felt as if she had reached her breaking point. Exhaustion held her in full reign. Her eyes were no longer the only clue to how much pain she was in. A think sheen of sweat covered the forehead of her flushed face, and her knuckles were constantly pressed against the skin of her hands to the point where the skin appeared white. Johnny, of course, didn't have the same rubber skin as Reed did, but he was pretty sure that, if Sue let go of his hand, there would still be a visible imprint where she was holding it so tightly.

She was also having trouble controlling her emotions. After all, she was a first time mother, in a great deal of pain even though she was on gas and air, and she'd already been given an epidural and her husband wasn't at her side. More than once, she had shimmered out of visibility, which had made things extremely hard for the midwives trying to assist her. Of course, Abigail, the midwife who had assisted Sue since the start of her pregnancy, and understood more than anyone the complexity of Sue's abilities when giving birth, knew that Sue's invisibility was going to be an issue, but not as much as it had proved to be so far. That's what Johnny was trying to take her mind off the pain by reminding her about all the times she had yelled at him for something, because at least that focused her emotions on one thing, so that she at least remained visible.

"Johnny," She told him weakly, as if she were on the verge of consciousness, but hanging on by a thread with all she had. "I appreciate that you're trying to help, but I can't do this without my husband."

At that moment, Johnny realised the internal turmoil that his sister was experiencing. She was the Invisible Woman, an international heroine, and a role model for young women everywhere. She had to be strong, set an example, and stand her ground. However, suddenly, the world's favourite action heroine, who was usually faced with getting herself out of a lot of tight spots on a daily basis, was faced with another, smaller action hero or heroine, who also wanted to get out of a tight spot. Sue was naturally a strong woman, and never let anything weaken her stride, even before she had received her powers, and they had all imagined that childbirth would be no exception to this, but now, when everything was starting to fall apart with the absence of the one man who was making motherhood a reality for, she was starting to lose her hope as well as her determination.

He turned away from a moment, the same time as Sue closed her eyes briefly. A contraction had just passed, giving her around two minutes to regain strength to see the next one through. At the moment, she was using every available, non-painful moment to get as much rest as she could. Her contractions were too close together for her to get any proper rest, but she was making the most of what she could get.

By turning his eyes away from his sister for a moment, Johnny became aware that there were more people in the room then there had been before.

Abigail and the two other midwives, who had been there from the start, were still there, but now, they were joined by two male doctors. The five of them were gathered at the other end of the delivery room, whilst one of the doctors pointed out certain things on some paperwork; the other was examining something under a microscope. Johnny couldn't see for sure what was going on, but the thing that worried him was the whispering. He'd seen what had happened when doctors whispered before, and he knew that it wasn't good.

He knew that something was wrong. Something wasn't right, and he didn't want Sue to know that until it was absolutely necessary. Despite her being the elder of them, he was still protective over his sister, and he wanted her to be worrying about nothing else than delivering her child for as long as possible.

"Sue," He said, turning back to her quickly, and seeing that her eyes were still closed. "_Susie_, look at me." He repeated, slightly more forcefully than he intended.

Her tired eyes were revealed to him, seeing her brother focused firmly on him, a determined scowl on his face. She shook her head weakly. "I can't do this anymore, Johnny." She whispered. "I can't. I'm not strong enough. I thought that I was, but I'm not."

"Yes, you are." He told her. "You can do this." Despite her energy leaving her a long time ago, she made to disagree, but he spoke again, keeping her attention drawn towards him, and not the whispering coming from the corner. "Remember when Mom died? You were there for me. You didn't give up on me, even though I was hard work and I got into trouble. You were there, and you kept me in like. You didn't care about any of the bad stuff that happened, because you only saw the good stuff. You were there for me, and you got me through it, Susie. Now, it's my turn." He said, holding her grasping hand between both of his. "I know that Reed's not here, and I know that you want him to be here, but he's on his way, I promise you that. But until then, until he gets here, I'm here, and I'm not leaving you, so you're going to be fine-"

"Mr. Storm?"

"What?" He asked, a little too rudely as one of the whispering doctors appeared at his shoulder, tapping it lightly and taking his attention away from Sue.

"I'm sorry to cause an inconvenience, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." He said solemnly, yet keeping his professionalism about him. "As of now, this room is under quarantine."

----

It was another half an hour by the time Reed had finally arrived at the hospital. By all means, it should have taken him longer, considering he was basically travelling from one end of the city to another, yet he had used his elasticity to his advantage, elongating his legs. The larger strides he could take allowed him to move quicker, and he never once gave thought to Ben, who somehow, managed to keep up with him. Ignoring the how, and just focusing on the simple fact that he was there, Reed found himself blocked from the doors by a swarm of fans and reporters - exactly who he didn't need to see right now. As soon as they saw him standing there, they all rounded on him, asking him questions and near blinding him the camera flashes.

"Dr. Richards, has your wife had the baby yet?"

"How is the Invisible Woman coping with the labour?"

"Sources say that the baby is a girl, would you like to comment on that?"

"We love you!"

"Mr. Fantastic, my son really likes you, if you could just sign this for him-"

"Alright, break it up!"

The last voice came from Ben; there was no disguising the gruffness in his tone. Reed hadn't actually focused on any of the other voices around him; he just knew that the people they belonged to were blocking his entrance to the hospital, and to Sue. However, Ben had caught up with him, showing no physical signs of tiredness from keeping up with Reed's hurried rush, and his wide frame forcing through instantly provided a space for them to pass through the crowds. Even though attitudes towards Ben's appearance had changed, no one wanted to stand in the way of The Thing.

"Come on, stretch." He said, his voice quietening as he guided his friend through the camera flashes. "Susie's waiting for you."

----

Johnny was sat in the corridor outside of Sue's delivery room. The chair underneath him felt almost alien to him. He was more collapsed into it than sitting, but still able to let his weight rest plastic shape. Everything was working on autopilot at the moment. His body, physically, was in the corridor, but his mind and thoughts were on the other side of the door with his sister. They'd had to physically drag him out of the delivery room when he refused to leave. He didn't care about the quarantine – he'd promised his sister that he was going to stay with her until her husband arrived to be at her side and less than a minute after he had made that promise, the door that now separated them had been firmly shut.

He paid no attention to the quarantine team standing either side of the doors, watching him carefully in case he made another bid to return to her side. He'd done it once, but he realized that being The Human Torch gave him no privileges. Leaning forwards in the chair, he rested his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands. Pressing the balls of his palms tightly into his eyes, he tried not to pay attention to the occasional screaming from Sue's contraction. The closed door wasn't soundproof, and not only was he suffering because she was suffering, but because he wasn't allowed to be there with her, and they both knew that he was outside.

He couldn't understand why this was happening. Not her. Not to Sue. There shouldn't be any complications with her or her baby. She was Sue Storm. She was the strongest one out of all of them; there was no doubt about that. He'd half expected her to deliver her baby without even getting out of breath, but no, instead, she was put under quarantine because of something that they wouldn't explain to him. Why couldn't they explain it to him? Because they couldn't. All they knew was that there was a radiation problem. That was all they could tell him. Of course, they wouldn't tell Sue that, in case it stressed her too much and put her and the baby in danger, but it was distressing enough for her to watch her younger brother be physically dragged from her side.

"Johnny!"

The sound of his name came from further down the corridor, simultaneously coming from two voices; the first gruff and full of a familiar roughness that he was used to shouting out his name in anger, although this wasn't anger, and the second sounding more desperate. He looked up, remaining seated and only lifting his head with a mild enthusiasm. Reed and Ben were rushing towards him, Reed considerably out of breath and red in the face, but still there.

"You're here." Johnny said simply. There was no 'where were you's or 'what took you so long's. No, just 'you're here'.

"Where's Sue?" Reed asked him quickly, not bothered by anything else other than where his wife was.

Johnny raised his head towards the closed door, indicating to the two men from quarantine that were still standing guard outside. "She's in there." Johnny said quietly, dropping his head once again but letting his hands hang loosely between his legs. "She's in there, and we can't be in there."

Reed frowned, approaching the door, but finding that he couldn't get through anyway. Wordlessly, the two men stopped him from entering. Helpless, Reed turned back to Johnny and stood before him, looking down at his brother-in-law. "Johnny, what's wrong?" He asked. "What's happening in there?"

"They don't know." Johnny told him, still looking at his hands as he folded them over themselves. "But none of us can go in there. Sue's under quarantine."

----

She was alone. She was in quarantine. Alone. Having a baby. On her own. Reed hated himself at that moment, more than he had ever done in his life. The birth of his child was happening on the other side of that door, and he wasn't allowed to get through it. His wife was having his baby, their first ever child, and he couldn't be at her side like he was supposed to be.

The three men sat outside of the door, all helplessly sunk into their chairs, as Johnny had been when they first arrived. Johnny had dipped his head once more, subtly covering his ears whenever Sue cried out in pain. Surely she wasn't meant to be in that much pain with the amount of painkillers she had been given? Clearly, she was in absolutely agony, but none of them could be at her side, even her husband, because they wouldn't let them. Instead, Reed had to sit outside, listening to the screams that were slowly pounding themselves into his memory and driving him to the edge of his sanity.

After a while, none of them knowing how long, one of the doctors came out of the room. Johnny instantly recognized him as one of the whispering doctors who had been in the room whilst he had been. As he started to approach them, Johnny nudged Reed, attracting his attention in the direction of the man who now stood before him.

"Dr. Richards? I'm Dr. Matthew Philips."

Reed looked up at him, almost tiredly. His eyes were bleak, filled with a damp fear for his wife that was blanketed in helplessness. "Can I see my wife now?" He asked, his voice on the verge of breaking, and it was clear, at that moment, that Reed had been fighting back tears for a long time.

"Yes." He said simply, and whilst Reed experienced a burst of energy, not able to get to his feet quick enough, Dr. Philips held out a hand to stop him. "I'm afraid before I allow you to see your wife, there is an urgent matter that I need to discuss with you."

"What's happening in there?" Reed asked. "What's happening, why won't you let us see her?"

Dr. Philips eyed Ben and Johnny curiously. "We may way to go somewhere more...private." He suggested.

Reed, however, shook his head firmly. "They're her family too." He pointed out. "Whatever you have to say, we all need to hear."

"Okay." Dr. Philips said, adjusting the glasses he wore before speaking again, his eyes dropping to the chart in his hands momentarily. "We've placed your wife under a mild quarantine because she is experiencing radiation poisoning." He said simply. "The radiation in her blood that her midwife informs me is a result of the cosmic storm which granted her the power she has, has, up until this point, existed in a state of balance with the additional hormones of the pregnancy. However, the stress from the labour has heightened the both of these, and they are, in a manner of speaking, contending with each other, which is resulting in the bodies of your wife and the baby being poisoned by the radiation as it enhances in retaliation to the hormones."

Whilst Dr. Philips seemed to report Sue's affliction as if it were nothing more than a case in a medical journal, Reed's face had filled with more and more despair for the duration of his speech. Reed might have been a scientist over a medical doctor, but he knew the basic realities of radiation poisoning. "Poisoned." He repeated, as if the word were foreign to him. "You mean...she's being _poisoned_? How is that possible?"

"Although the quarantine rules state that no one is allowed to enter the room, this isn't a contagious disease we are containing, so we are going to allow you inside as she is asking for you." He explained. "But you need to understand the realities of the situation, as well as how much danger her and the baby are in at this moment. I am not one of the doctors who are inclined to give out false hope."

Reed raised his hands to his face, running his hands over the skin which contorted under his hands and then flexed back into its original shape. False hope. That meant that there wasn't any hope at all. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. Yet, however many times he repeated it in his mind, he still found himself in the middle of the hospital corridor, being told that what should be the happiest day of their lives could soon turn into the worst.

"I understand that this is an emotional time, sir, and I assure you that we're doing the best we can, but I'm afraid this isn't a situation that has ever been heard of before." Dr. Philips explained gravely, and it was that statement alone, not the final verdict of the case, which condemned Sue, as it were. No one had seen this case before, which meant that there was no success rate. "There is a chance that your wife and the baby may both be lost before we find a way to contain the radiation safely."

Rather than screaming out in anguish, which Ben expected him to do, or grabbing Dr. Philips and punching him, as Johnny expected him to do, Reed remained silent...speechless, even...as he processed the information. However long it took for the information to reach his mind, he still couldn't believe it, even when it did take hold of him. Swallowing back the lump in his throat that still choked his every word; he asked the question he was afraid of ever having to voice. "Are you telling me that my wife and our baby are going to die?" He murmured in a tiny voice.

Dr. Philips glanced down at the chart, Sue's chart, and then looked back at the shell of a man before him. "It's a possibility that we're doing our best to avoid."

A possibility. Doing our best. There was a high chance that Sue was going to die. There was a chance that the parenthood they had been expecting to share together was never going to be a reality for them. In all their talks about how a child might be a potential target to be used against them, they'd never once encountered the possibility that the birth might have complications brought on by the cosmic storm. Sue had never had any trouble with conception, so they assumed that there was no danger in the birth, either. Even the midwives and the many medical consults hadn't confronted the possibility that the bringing of a life into the world could be fatal.

Reed took a deep, calming breath - the calming affect of which didn't work. "I need to see her." He choked out, feeling what he thought was pure, undeterred fear for the first time in his life.

Dr. Philips nodded. "Right this way."


	3. Chapter 3: More Room In A Broken Heart

Chapter 3:

Since they were simply crossing through the blocked door, Reed had no time to prepare himself for what he was about to see. In the back of his mind, he was afraid that he might find his wife already too far gone to save, and for a moment that almost seemed like a reality. Numbly, he stepped into the room, the other two waiting outside on the chairs they hadn't even risen from. They knew they wouldn't be allowed through as well. That was just wishful thinking that the three of them would be allowed in together. Even if Johnny was immediate family, just like Reed, he knew that he could do nothing for his sister now. Reed, of course, could do little more than Johnny, but the bond that he and Sue had for this experience came from that of their child; their child that was in danger, just like his wife.

At the far end of the delivery room, away from the door, Sue was lying on her back, breathing heavily with her eyes closed. Instead of the sweat pants and maternity shirt she had been wearing that morning, she was now draped in a typical hospital gown, as white as the rest of the room. He moved to her bedside straight away, her eyes still closed with a tired expression on her face. Dr. Philips stayed beside him for a moment, saying that he though it was best that she hear the news from him, as it was imperative that she knew and understood what was happening, and when Reed simply nodded, he disappeared to the other doctor, checking notes that had been written. Then, he realised what he'd just been asked to do. He had to tell his wife that their baby might _die_. He had to tell her that _she_ might die.

Reed sat on the edge of the bed beside her, picking up the hand that was lying at his side, screwed into a ball, and lifting it to his lips. He kissed her knuckles gently. Her other hands was lain across her stomach, in the protective manner which she often adopted when speaking about the baby, and it was only when she felt his lips against her skin that she opened her eyes. She fluttered them open gently. "Sue," He whispered.

Hearing his voice, she gave him a gentle smile. "Reed, you're here." She said, relief clear in her voice through her exhaustion.

"I'm here. I promised, remember?" She nodded in confirmation. "I've been here, but they wouldn't let me in before. But I'm here now. It's okay."

_But it's not okay_, his mind told him.

The smile that had graced her features when she first responded to his presence faded, and she felt no qualms about masking her pain anymore. The emotion-filled blue eyes gazed up at him, begging for him to share some of the strength that she often leant on him for. "It _really_ hurts, Reed." She half-whimpered.

He nodded. "I know, darling." He said, sweeping back some of the golden hair which had fallen from her pony-tail hairstyle. "But you're doing great," He assured her. "You're doing..._amazing_."

But his reassurances fell on deaf ears as she shook her head. "I don't think it's meant to hurt this much." She admitted. "I knew it was going to hurt, but something's wrong, I _know_ it is."

Something was very wrong, he wanted to tell her. However, Sue wasn't just any other woman. She was Sue Storm. When she sensed something was wrong, she was usually right, and to try and assure a mother that there was nothing wrong when she could clearly sense that there was, was futile. Her usual instinct combined with a maternal intuition wasn't something he could lie to. "I know." He said simply, as grief filled his own eyes.

Sue frowned lightly, looking up at him. He knew that something was wrong. He knew what was happening. Fear flashed into her eyes. "What's happening to my baby?" She asked fearfully, letting out a shaky breath beforehand.

Reed inhaled slowly, letting his breath escape with uncertainty as he looked away for a moment. He'd never been great at keeping eye contact during dire situations, but since marrying Sue, he'd gotten over that. He'd held her gaze as he proposed to her, and then again when they'd become man and wife. But now, this was different. He was about to explain to his wife that she might not make it through the birth, and the same for their child. How was he supposed to do that?

"Reed?" She asked him again, hesitantly. She'd never seen such anguish on his face, and the tears that had appeared on his cheeks were scaring her more than the agonising paranoia that she felt.

"They're doing everything they can, Susie..." He told her, watching her own face fall in despair as he revealed the fate of when she immediately knew as something wrong. Everything they can didn't generally mean that something was right. "...for both of you." He added, grasping her hand tightly between his own, his elasticised skin encasing her hands fully.

Her eyes never left his face, but they did follow the tears that tracked down his cheeks. "You're crying..." She observed quietly, not fully comprehending what he had told her a moment before, because of the drugs and the exhaustion. However, nothing could mask her husband's tears from her. She moved her free hand, which had a drip administering a painkiller on the upside of her hand, to land on his cheek. "Why are you crying?" She asked him.

"Because I'm scared." He admitted in a breathy and fearful whisper.

Sue had no chance to react to this, as another more painful contraction ripped through her body. She cried out, having not been prepared for this one, and clutched at Reed. As her stomach throbbed with pain, and she was unable to feel anything else, she became aware that Reed was speaking to her, coaching her through the pain, but she couldn't understand what he was saying. The sound of his voice, however, was enough.

When the contraction was over, she leaned her forehead against his shoulder, feeling his arms wind around her, embracing her tightly whilst she tried to catch her breath. "Reed, what's happening?" She asked him shakily, as the edging paranoia crept into the front of her mind now that the pain had ceased again.

"Mrs. Richards, how are you feeling?" Dr. Philips asked, coming to her side now that the contraction was over. His voice had softened from the tone he had used when explaining to Reed that he was facing the chance of losing his family.

"Like shit." Sue murmured from Reed's shoulder, her voice muffled against his shirt, but they both still heard what she said. Reed smiled lightly, that was Sue. Honesty that, at times, was brutal.

"I'm going to give you a shot of this, okay?" He said, holding up a syringe.

Reed looked at it sceptically as he moved it towards Sue's arm. "_Whoa_, _wait_, what is that?" He asked hurriedly, moving his hand to a position where it blocked Sue from the needle. He knew that they were doing all they could to help her, but he wanted to know exactly what means they were taking.

"It's magnesium sulphate." Dr. Philips explained. "It's usually something we use in women during their first trimester who go into early labour, but we have no other choice at the moment. We're using it to stop the contractions."

That had Sue's attention. "_What_?" She asked, raising her head from Reed's shoulder but bracing herself against him, wrapping her hands around his upper arms.

"Why are you stopping them?" Reed asked.

"Because we're going to lose them both, and quickly, if Susan becomes fully dilated." Dr. Philips explained simply.

"_Lose us_..." Sue frowned, a panicky expression reaching her feature. "...you mean-?"

Reed jumped in quickly, as her eyes darted between her husband and the doctor. "It's okay, Sue, it's going to be fine." He said hurriedly.

"Are we going to _die_?" Sue asked, her voice rising in pitch and accompanied with a heavy helplessness over her panic. Her grip on Reed's upper arms tightened, causing her nails to dig in to his skin, which he didn't notice.

Reed simply stroked her back, unable to tell her that there was a possibility of that happening. He couldn't even say the words to himself, let alone to the woman that he loved. Instead, Dr. Philips looked down at her from his glasses. "Mrs. Richards, the level of radiation in your bloodstream, combined with the pregnancy hormones, is _extensively_ high." He told her. "The stress from the labour has them both raging against each other, as it were, which has caused the now higher levels of radiation to induce a considerable amount of poisoning to you and your baby."

Sue looked up at him as if she couldn't comprehend what she was saying. Even though she had once worked as a director of genetics research, she was no longer that woman, not at the moment. She was simply a scared mother, afraid for her child and for herself. "Poisoning?" She repeated, the same way in which Reed had done.

Dr. Philips nodded. "We're hoping that the magnesium sulphate is going to stop the contractions, to give us more time."

"What for?" Sue asked.

"We've discovered that, for the moment, the placenta is what is keeping you both alive." He explained. "We need to maintain that connection between you and the baby for as long as possible, so that we have the time to find out how to save the two of you."

Reed's heart felt as it were being stabbed all over again, not just from hearing those words again, but from the added pain in his wife's eyes. It was a look that he was never going to forget, no matter what the outcome of the day: the look of a woman who thinks she's going to die. "How much time do you need?" He asked quietly.

"As much as we can get." Dr. Philips said vaguely.

Reed felt anger raging through him for a moment. "You don't know?" He asked hotly.

However, the doctor remained calm. "As I said before, Dr. Richards, no one in the world has seen a case like this before." He pointed out. "We're doing all we can."

He gave Sue the shot of magnesium sulphate, and then walked away, leaving the couple together again. It was then that Reed was aware of how tightly Sue was gripping his arms, to the point where it was painful, but he didn't urge her to release him. Instead, he brought his arms closer around her, their faces level now that her head was raised.

"Reed..." She started, her voice weak and quiet.

"Just...don't worry, Sue." He said without needing to think about. "They'll think of something, you'll be fine."

She gave him a sad smile. "I love you, you know that?" She checked.

However, instead of the almost goofy smile that usually crossed his face when she told him this, it seemed as if the hope were falling from his heart. "Please, Sue." He murmured to her, their foreheads resting together. "Don't say goodbye to me." He pleaded.

"I'm not saying goodbye." She said simply, as if the situation that faced her with death were no longer applicable. "I just figure that I'm sitting here having your baby, so I should tell you that I love you."

He managed a smile at this, and leaned forward to kiss her gently. "God, I love you too." He whispered against her lips.

She drew in a deep breath, as she saw the situation in its full seriousness. It wasn't just her life at stake here. It was her child's. _Their_ child's. The life that she had carried inside of her for nine months, as well as the extra over-due week, was being threatened. The maternal instinct in her wanted to fight out at this threat, but the only problem was that this threat was herself. "Reed." She said quietly, after a moment of silence whilst they tried in vain to draw strength from each other. "Reed, if there's a choice between saving me, and saving the baby," Reed seemed to freeze up, sensing immediately what she was about to say. "I want you to save our child."

"Sue-"

"We've wanted this baby for so long." She reminded him painfully, a tear of her own escaping onto her cheek. "I don't think I could bare it if I had to watch my baby die because I lived." She choked out.

Reed placed his hand on her cheek, caressing it softly. "Our baby is _not_ going to die, and neither are you." He said, a little forcefully, but still with a gentleness in his voice that was only ever there when he spoke to Sue. "I'm not going to chose between you and the baby because there's _not going to be a choice_."

She looked at him with damp blue eyes, which reminded him of a sky just before the storm clouds set in for a long haul of a storm. "Then why are you so scared?" She challenged him.


	4. Chapter 4: I Believe In Love

Johnny sighed, grinding his face into his hands once again. It had been a matter of minutes since Reed had gone into the delivery room, and already, Johnny was expecting news. Of course, he didn't know why. It was going to be a case of desperation and force if Reed left that room now that he was at Sue's side. He had to hand it to his brother-in-law, there was times when he was nervous and twitchy, but when Sue really needed him, he always came through for her.

"I wonder what's happening in there." He murmured, looking up, and feeling Ben's gaze upon him.

Ben was silent for a moment. He, too, was wondering what on Earth was happening on the other side of those doors. Especially now that the sound of Sue having a contraction seemed to have stopped, and it wasn't because of the sound of baby's cry. Instead, there was an uneasy silence that came from the room now, which seemed to echo all around them. "Someone will tell us eventually." He said in an usually small, yet still gruff, voice.

Johnny frowned impatiently. "I can't wait for 'eventually'." He complained, standing up and starting to pace around.

"Just calm down, kid." Ben tried, but Johnny looked at him wildly for suggesting the idea, and gesturing with his arm towards the door.

"That's my _sister _in there." He pointed out.

"Yeah." Ben nodded calmly. "And that's my _best friend_ in there too."

They locked eyes for a moment, when they both came to the realisation that, in reality, each were waiting for news about the most important person in the world to them. Johnny may have grown up in his intelligent sister's shadow, but at the end of the day, after their mother died, she was the sole reason that he hadn't gone off the rails in his teenage years, and she had brought him back from a self-inflicted silence which he had fallen into immediately after their mothers dead. They were a team. Sue and Johnny. The siblings that fought like hell, but would do anything for each other. Ben, much the same, had a hard childhood, especially with the death of his brother Daniel, and Reed had always been there for him. Of course, Reed was always the smart one, and Ben the brawns of the pair, but they were a team, like Sue and Johnny, and they handled things together, whether it was their disastrous love lives, science projects, or bullying. They were both parts of teams within the main team, and it was hard for both of them to realise that each of their minority teams were on the other side of that door, completely blocked off from them, and any chance of being able to help.

Sighing heavily, Johnny stopped his momentary pacing, and fell back into the chair beside Ben. He picked up the coffee he had retrieved a moment ago from the machine at the other end of the hall and took a large gulp, the burning liquid would have been unbearable were it not for his high heat tolerance. "Are we meant to be doing anything?" He asked quietly, leaning his head back against the wall.

Ben shook his head. "We can't do anything." He said, his voice just as low, and it probably would have been threatening to someone who didn't understand the anguish he was facing like Johnny did.

"We have to do _something_." Johnny said desperately.

"We just have to wait." Ben told him.

Johnny sighed again, banging his head slightly against the wall, hoping it would knock a solution into his head. Waiting. He didn't do well with waiting. The same with rules - like the ones that the quarantine guys were giving them. Part of him wanted to stay there and be good for once, so that nothing stressed Sue out even more than it already was, and so that the doctors could carry on finding a way to save her and her baby. The other part of him, however, which he was more used to listening to, was telling him to go ahead and burst through the door, force the doctors to save Sue, and then stay at her side. For once, though, he knew that he needed to listen to the part of his mind he had labelled as 'sensible and useless'. If only for his sister's sake.

Johnny suddenly spoke into the silence. "How does this happen?" He asked quietly.

Ben shook his head. "I don't know."

"Susie and Reed never did anything wrong to anyone." Johnny complained unfairly. "They don't deserve this."

"No one does, Johnny." Ben pointed out. Not even the worst super villain in existence deserved to go through an ordeal like this.

"I know." Johnny moaned. "But...but...just...not _them_."

Ben placed his large, rocky hand on Johnny's shoulder as they both let out sighs.

* * *

"Reed..."

Reed's head jerked out of the silence he had been staring in to. Everything in the room, save for the whispering of the doctors in the corner, had fallen to an uncomfortable silence. Reed and Sue had spent many long hours together without saying a word, just enjoying each others presence as they lay in each others arms, but this, unfortunately, wasn't one of those times. The magnesium sulphate had stopped her contractions half an hour ago, but so, it seemed, had her energy levels. She was groggy, exhausted, and above all, scared and confused.

He stood beside her, one arm stretched around her several times as she lay back on the bed, the other stroking her blonde hair, assuring her the entire time that he hadn't left her. Her eyes were closed, trying to get some of the rest that had been recommended now that there weren't contractions to stop her sleeping, but whilst she lay on the verge of a much wanted slumber, she never crossed the line between waking and sleep. Reed knew why without her saying, and part of him was glad for it, even though she was exhausted. No matter how many assurances the doctors gave them, if these were to be some of her last hours, she didn't want to sleep through them.

Needless to say, when her tired voice reached his ears, he jerked back into reality, leaving behind the trance he had found himself in where, for a moment, it had seemed like they were simply at home together. "What is it, sweetheart?" He asked her, in a gentle tone, his hand stopping its caress over her hair to rest it along her hairline, his thumb stroking the skin gently.

Her eyes opened to look up at him, that action alone feeling like an effort for her. "I'm not having contractions anymore." She pointed out, a questioning confusion to her tone.

"I know." He told her, seeing in her eyes that she appeared as if she had just woken up from a long sleep. "I know, the doctors stopped them, remember?" He prompted.

Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "But...I'm meant to be having a baby..."

"We _are_." Reed assured her firmly. "We are having a baby."

He remembered saying this multiple times when they first found out that Sue was pregnant. She'd been feeling unwell, and even though they hadn't even suspected a pregnancy, due to long months of trying to conceive and failing, she went to the doctor, who recommended a test. When it was positive, she had left the surgery, and called Reed. He'd met her in the Hayden Planetarium, and there, underneath the fake stars which had been the sky of so many of their dates, she told him that she was pregnant. He'd said it so many times, whilst the information processed, and the reality set in, and then he'd actually disturbed many of the other visitors by screaming it aloud, and then jumping into the air with Sue in his arms. Somehow, having to say it with the forced determination that he was using now, didn't have the same magical effect that it had when Sue had told him for the first time.

"Then, why aren't I having contractions?" She asked him.

He sighed, and gave her a sad smile, stroking back a stray hair which had escaped his attention. "Sue, do you remember what's happening?" He asked her sadly.

For a moment, she was quiet, looking at him in confusion. Since the drowsiness had set in on her, she seemed to forget about where she was, and what was happening around her. Reed hated himself for having to remind her of the situation, and felt his heart breaking in two when the emotional drive returned to her pained eyes. "Surely," She suggested hesitantly. "Surely, it's better to just have the baby quickly?"

"I'm afraid not, Mrs. Richards." Dr. Philips said from where he had been checking her painkiller intake from beside the bed. "The longer we can keep you and the baby joined via the placenta, the better. It's what's keeping you both alive at the moment."

Reed looked down at his wife, who, at hearing this, seemed to lose even more of the hope that was already failing. Reed left her side, and went to the other side of the bed, standing before Dr. Philips. "Do you have to keep saying this in front of her?" He asked, trying to keep his voice calm so that it didn't attract Sue's attention.

"The drugs that we've administered may be causing her mind to block out the facts-"

"_Then let it block them out_!" Reed said rather loudly, attracting the attention of the midwives and the other doctor as well. Seeing the hostility that Reed was presenting, Abigail, Sue's midwife, went to her patient's side, distracting her from what was happening beside her.

"Dr. Richards, I'm not sure you understand-"

"What I understand is that you want to keep my wife from becoming distressed." Reed countered. "And telling her that the only reason she's alive is because the baby she wants to hold in her arms is still inside of her, is probably the most distressing thing she can hear at the moment."

"I am simply giving my patient the facts." Dr. Philips said after a moment.

"But that doesn't mean you have to repeat them." Reed insisted, looking back at Sue, who was no longer watching them, but rather, having a cool cloth placed on her forehead by Abigail. He turned back to the doctor. "She's scared. She's _terrified_. We've been trying to have this baby for years now, and you constantly telling us that either or both of them could die isn't helping anything." He said, his voice lowered once more.

"Forgive me, I didn't mean-"

"Do you know anything else yet?" Reed asked, before he found himself in a position where he was asked to leave as Johnny had been when he kicked up a fuss.

Dr. Philips shook his head. "We're waiting for one of the midwives to bring up an ultrasound machine so that we can get a better look at what's happening inside." He informed him.

Reed nodded silently, and then asked the question that he hadn't yet had the courage to ask. He still didn't have that confidence, but he needed to know. "How long do you...if something goes wrong...what happens?" He asked. "How long will she..?"

"If we are unable to diffract the radiation from both her and the baby, it is unlikely that either of them will make it through the full birthing." Dr. Philips explained.

"_No_..."

"Maybe you should get some air." Dr. Philips suggested, when he saw that Reed's face had paled considerably, almost beyond that of Sue's current pasty colour.

He shook his head. "I _can't _leave her." He murmured.

"Reed..."

As if on cue, Sue called out to him, her voice a weak cry. He left the doctor standing there, and went back to Sue's side as Abigail walked away, allowing them their moment to as much privacy as they could give. "I'm here." He said, taking up her hand again. "_I'm here_."

She looked up at him wearily, doubt written on her face. "I can't do this anymore, Reed." She said, tears rolling down her cheeks as she shook her head from side to side on the pillow.

"Yes, you can." He told her, trying not to panic at the thought of her giving up. "Sue, you're doing _great_."

"No, Reed." She said, her voice coming out on a sob. "I can't lie here waiting for my baby to _die_."

"Sue-"

"I can't do it, Reed. I just want this _over_-"

"_Susan, look at me_." He instructed, his voice firm. She knew that he was serious about whatever he was about to say, because he called her 'Susan'. He always called her 'Sue', apart from the times when he was being sweet or comforting, when he would call her 'Susie'. 'Susan' was reserved for the completely serious. Like now. "Listen to me." He told her softly. "Do you love this baby?"

"Reed-"

"Do you love our baby, Sue?" He repeated over the top of her.

She held his gaze for a moment, biting her lip to stop another sob escaping her. "More than anything." She said genuinely, the words alone coming from her heart.

"You need to hold on to that, okay?" He told her. "You've got to hold on, and remember how much you love this baby, and how much I love you."

"I love you, too." She murmured back.

Reed leaned his head down, placing a kiss to her quivering lips. "_Please_, Sue." He begged her. "Just..._hold on_, please. I know that it's hard, and that it hurts, and that you're scared. I'm scared too, but we're going to get through this together. I'm going to be here, and we're going to do this, but you need to believe that you can."

Sue tried to compose herself for a moment, taking deep breaths and wiping underneath her eyes with the back of her hand. "Okay." She said firmly. "Okay."

"Good, that's good." He smiled, kissing her forehead as she sniffled one last time. "It's all going to be worth it, Susie, I promise. It'll be worth it when we've got our baby in our arms."

She nodded. "I know...is Johnny okay?"

"Johnny?" He questioned at her quick topic change.

She nodded again. "He was here, with me." She explained. "But they made him leave. He made a really big fuss about it. Is he okay now?"

Reed gave her an amused smile, which was hard considering the situation, but he still managed. "He's really scared." He told her.

"He is?"

"He won't admit it, but he is." Reed nodded. "He's worried about his sister."

She smiled sadly. "Will you go and check on him?" She asked him, as easily as if she were asking him to go and check on a sleeping child.

"Sue..." He trailed off, not wanting to leave her side.

"Please." She said softly. "I want him to know what's happening."

"Sue, don't."

"I'm not saying goodbye." She assured him. "I just want him to know."

He sighed, not liking the idea of leaving her side. What if something happened and he wasn't there? But still, she was lying there, moments after a breakdown, and in the worst position of her life, and she was still the same old Sue, always worrying about her little brother. He gave her a soft smile and nodded. "Okay." He said, glad to see that this caused her to smile, even if it was just a fraction. He kissed her forehead. "I'll be right back."


	5. Chapter 5: What Else Can I Do

"Reed."

Johnny noticed that he was outside with them before Reed had even noticed that he'd fully left the delivery room. Behind him, the quarantine control guards closed the door without a word. Reed looked up at the two men now before him. Johnny was standing up, having been pacing again, but Ben was still seated, however, he rose when Reed left the room. "Johnny, Ben-"

"What's going on? Why did you leave her?" Johnny demanded, immediately standing before Reed.

"She asked me to." Reed explained, remembering the fuss that Johnny had made being taken from her side, as Sue has said.

"She didn't want to be on her own-"

"She wanted me to come and talk to you." Reed interrupted him.

"Me?"

He nodded. "She saw you kick up a fuss when they made you leave." He explained. "She wants you to know what's going on."

"And what is going on?" Ben asked him.

"The doctors confirmed that Sue and the baby are being poisoned by the radiation we were exposed to in space."

"So, it's for real." Ben said conclusively. Reed simply nodded.

"You mean like..._dying_?" Johnny asked hesitantly.

"Johnny-"

"That's what this is about, isn't it?" He jumped in. "That's why she wanted you to come out here and talk to us. She's dying, isn't she?"

Reed looked, for a moment, as if he were swallowing a lump in his throat. "They're doing all they can." He said, repeating what he had been told a thousand times already.

Johnny looked almost livid at this point. Reed didn't think he had ever seen the youngest of their team so angry. "_'All they can' _isn't enough!" He cried out. "They're doctors, they're meant to save people!"

"That's what they're trying to do!" Reed argued back.

"That's my sister in there-"

However, this time, when Reed cut him off, he vented out all of the emotions that he'd been keeping locked up in front of Sue. "I know that you're upset because she's your sister, but she's my _wife_, and that's my _baby _in there as well. All I ever wanted was a family with the woman I love more than anything in this universe, and because of that, I might lose them both, so you're not the only one hurting!"

Reed's outburst left a moment of shocked silence between the two men. Reed wasn't one to shout, even with Johnny, no matter how much they irritated each other. If anyone ever yelled at Johnny, it was never Reed. But, lo and behold, it had happened. "So, what are they doing?" Ben asked, to break the silence.

Reed took a deep breath, running his hands through his hair for a moment. "The placenta is what's keeping them both alive, so they've stopped the contractions for now to give them time."

"Can they do that?" Ben asked with a frown.

"They already have." Reed confirmed.

Johnny, still scowling, spoke up calmly. "But, that's not going to hurt her anymore, is it?" He checked.

Reed shook his head. "No, not until they let them start again."

"When will they do that?" Ben asked.

"When they've found a way to keep the radiation under control." He said, refraining from saying _'keeping the radiation from killing them'._

"How long will that be?" Johnny asked impatiently.

"I don't know." Reed said honestly, helplessness floating into his tone.

"Do they think she's going to pull through?" Johnny asked.

Ah, now there was the big question. The question that Reed couldn't answer. Well, physically, he could. There was nothing stopping him from saying the simple answer he had been told, but it was the desperation on his brother-in-law's face that stopped him from saying it. Devastation would be a light reaction, to say the least.

"Reed?" He asked again, when he didn't get an answer.

Reed looked down at the ground, his eyes averted, and tears coming to his eyes. He didn't want to cry in front of the others, as he'd felt bad enough crying in front of Sue when she had caught him out. "They've already told us to prepare for the loss of the baby." He revealed. "And about ten minutes ago, they told me to prepare myself in case Sue doesn't pull through either."

"So, they don't think she'll make it?"

"Johnny-"

"_Jesus_." Johnny hissed under his breath, turning away from the pair who stood beside him and placing his head in his hands. He couldn't stand it anymore. Sue couldn't die. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Sue was meant to have the happily ever after she dreamed about as a child. She wasn't meant to die before it even began. She was meant to get old and grey and live to be one hundred. _This couldn't be happening. _His head started spinning, and he had to remind himself to breathe.

"Susie's strong." Ben said, looking sympathetically at Johnny whilst placing a hand on Reed's shoulder.

Johnny turned around rapidly, and pushed through the pair of them. "I've gotta get out of here." He said hurriedly.

"Johnny, don't leave-" Reed called after him.

"I can't stay here." Johnny shouted over his shoulder. "I need to get away from this place."

"_Johnny_-"

But it was no use. He had already disappeared from their sight. Reed sighed heavily, almost collapsing underneath his own body weight.

"Hey, chin up, man." Ben said weakly, his encouragement not as strong as he'd have liked it to sound.

"How do you do it?" Reed asked, looking up at him. Ben felt like he could see the end of the world in his best friend's eyes, and supposed that, if things went terribly wrong right now, this would be the end of Reed's world. "How do you prepare yourself for your wife and child dying?"

The simple answer was that he couldn't. It didn't matter how much you accepted that it was inevitable, it was going to happen. It was a reality that was always going to happen, but in this case, much too soon than it should have done. The two of them, after their marriage, had briefly encountered the conversation as to what might happen should either of them die, and it had been a central argument between the two of them when they were debating whether or not to keep their powers. They'd always known that eventually, but hopefully far into the future, one of them was going to lose the other, but when it came to Sue, Reed always imagined her going out fighting. It was what she did best, whether that was fighting for what she believed in, or, as Johnny called it, _'kicking cosmic ass'._

"She's strong." Ben reminded him. "She just needs you to be strong as well."

Reed was about to answer, probably denying that he was strong enough in his typical manner, but he never got a chance. The sudden call of "Dr. Richards." from behind them attracted both of their attention. Recognising the voice as that of Dr. Philips, Reed quickly span around in a panic.

"What is it?" He asked quickly, in a panicked rush.

However, instead of delivering the bad news that Reed had been dreading, Dr. Philips gave him a confident smile. "I think we have a solution."

----

Back inside Sue's room in an instant, Reed found himself pulled to one side, having only a moment to assure Sue that Johnny was okay. He thought it best not to tell her about her brother's disappearing act. However, Dr. Philips took him over to the side counter, and showed him the chart that had Sue's medical records on it. Whilst little of it applied to the current situation, he found that there were extensive charts into the comparison of hormone levels and radiation levels.

"So, how are you going to do it?" Reed asked impatiently.

"The radiation in Mrs. Richard's blood came from a cosmic storm that you encountered in space, is this correct?"

"Yes, three years ago." He nodded.

"It is that radiation which is reacting to the hormones, so we've been trying to find a way to reverse the effects of the radiation long enough for her to deliver the child."

"It's not possible." Reed revealed solemnly, wondering whether it was on this hope that their answer was based. "We tried before, but it's impossible to generate enough power."

"We understand that now, but there is another, more efficient way." He corrected him. "We're going to use a form of intravenous chemicals during the last stages of delivery, which will control the strength of her hormones, and that will prevent them for acting against the radiation."

"And this will stop the poisoning?"

"In theory, yes."

Whilst this gave him hope, he remembered Sue telling him a long time ago, their first time back together after two years of separation, that things happening in theory were always different to what happened in practice. "What about the baby?"

"With the baby, it's a 50-50 chance." Dr. Philips told him, almost gravely, but 50 was a much higher percentage then they'd had an hour ago. "But we're hopeful that, with the exception of any further complications, that a blood transfusion will eradicate any radiation from his bloodstream."

Reed nodded, and then replayed the doctor's words in his head. Had he heard that correctly? "_His_?"

Dr. Philips nodded, with a smile showing more confidence than before. "Congratulations, Dr. Richards." He smiled, putting his hand on Reed's shoulder. "If all goes well, you and your wife are going to be proud parents of a son."


	6. Chapter 6: I'm So In Love With You

Johnny stood before a large, detached house. Around it, gardens were flourishing, and he hadn't seen them looking quite so attended to since he was a child. Yes, this was the house that he and Sue had grown up in. If he looked carefully, he could still see the chipped off paint behind the carnations that had been a result of him riding his bike straight into the wall. He could remember so much of his childhood on that front lawn and the porch - summer nights playing games, barbeques with the neighbours, both he and Sue going to their respective proms.

He was glad that, after he and Sue had moved out, his father had decided to keep the house. The mortgage had been hard to pay off after their mother's death, but they had managed. However, they knew that Franklin Storm had been thinking about selling the house for a smaller place. Thankfully, though, he hadn't. Too many times, Johnny had found himself out of a place to live, and after Sue and Reed had first broken up, she'd spent a few months living with their father again.

But mostly, he was glad because he had a lot of memories in this house.

The door opened before him, and revealed a tall, white haired man. In his day, Frank Storm had been something of a stud, as he'd liked to call himself, and would remind Johnny that this was why he got so much female attention. There were many similarities between the father and son, but even more so between father and daughter.

"Johnny?" He asked, sounding confused.

"Hi, dad." Johnny said, forcing a smile.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, shocked. "I wasn't expecting you-"

"I know." He said quickly. "Can I come in? I have something to tell you."

"Of course." Frank said, stepping back so that his son could pass through the door beside him. Closing the door after his entrance, he saw him through to the living room. "You hungry, son?"

Yes, he was starving. "No, thanks, dad."

"Something to drink?"

"Dad." Johnny said solemnly. "Come and sit down."

Frank wasn't sure he'd ever seen his son with such a serious expression; not since his mother had passed. "What's got you so riled up?" He asked suspiciously, noting his edgy behaviour, and wondering whether he had got into some trouble.

"Dad, _sit down_." Johnny repeated, almost on the verge of pleading this time. Frank lowered himself into a nearby chair, opposite his son. "It's about Susie."

"Has she had the baby?" Frank asked, excitement in his aging eyes. "Am I grandfather finally?"

"The doctors say that there's some..._problems_." Johnny revealed carefully. He remembered how Reed had stumbled over the words when explaining it to them before, and now he could see why. Hearing it was one thing, but having to tell someone meant that you had to believe it.

"What kind of problems?" Frank asked, his excitement fading, replaced with a paternal worry.

"Radiation problems." Johnny said, looking away from his father, and down at the coffee table that stood in the centre of the room. It still had the school photo on it that contained him and Sue together, both wearing their navy school uniforms. God, he remembered, that was primary school. Johnny's first year. "From the storm that gave us our powers."

"Oh." Frank said, not fully understanding what this meant.

"They said that the radiation combined with her hormones is poisoning Sue and the baby." Johnny continued.

"Poisoning?" Frank repeated, frowning heavily. "You mean..."

"The only reason they're both alive at the moment is because of something that's connecting them. I can't remember the word..." Johnny trailed off.

"But...but, that's not _possible_." Frank protested, all his scientific knowledge failing him now that it was his daughter and grandchild at risk.

"She might...die, Dad." Johnny whispered, his eyes fixated on that school photograph. "She might not make it."

"Oh, my goodness." Frank said, lowering his face to his hands and breathing deeply. "Oh, _no_."

Johnny gulped, the smiling image of his seven-year-old sister smiling up at him from the photograph; tiny pearl earrings in her newly pierced ears, and her golden hair pulled back on the top half with the bottom hanging around her shoulders. "They gave her something to stop the contractions." He explained. "So that they could find an answer, but none of the doctors know what they're doing, because this has never happened before."

"How much time do they need?" He asked.

"They don't know." Johnny answered, looking down at his hands.

"Is Susan okay for the moment?" His father asked quietly.

"She's scared." Johnny said honestly. "I was with her, but they made me leave because of the quarantine."

"Quarantine? You mean, she's alone now?"

He shook his head. "When they found out that she might not make it, they let Reed go in with her. He's with her." Yes, Reed was with her. Even if this was the worst situation in the world, she had her husband, the man that she loved, at her side, holding her hand. At least _he _was there.

"That's...good." Frank said quietly. "That's good that he's with her."

"I just..." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hands, looking away from the photographed blue eyes that watched him. "I had to come and tell you, because you're _you_. You're our _dad_, and I know how upset Susie was when she found out that _her _child might be dying."

Frank took a shaky breath, for the moment appearing to fight off tears. "Why aren't you at the hospital now?" He asked. "Why not just call me?"

He looked up at his father. "I can't tell you over the phone that Susie might be dying, Dad." He said shakily. "Besides, all I could hear was her screaming for ages, and then there was just this _silence_...and Reed told us that she might not make it, and that look in his eyes..." That look had been the worst. The broken, helpless look in his sister's husband's eyes. The look of heartbreak. He knew that no matter what, nothing in the world was ever going to replace that nightmarish pain in Reed's mind. He would never feel anything worse than what he was feeling right now. He'd never be able to forget what was happening that day, no matter what the outcome. "I just had to get away from it all."

Frank was silent for a moment, and then he rose to his feet. Johnny watched him, seeing his father as the aging man he had become for the first time in his life. The fear in Reed's eyes had, previously, made him appear older than he really was, but now Frank looked frailer than he had ever done in Johnny's memory. This was the man who caught him getting his bike out of the garage at seven in the morning, and would untangle him from all the things he got caught up in, the man who had held them at their mother's funeral, the man who had protectively threatened his sister's boyfriends. "Then," he decided. "I think it's about time we go back to the hospital." He said.

"I-" Johnny started to protest, but Frank cut him off, no matter how much Johnny didn't want to be back in the corridor with either the silence or the screaming.

"Come on, son."

----

Reed went back to Sue's side; her eyes were closed once again in rest. However, he knew that she wasn't sleeping. He wasn't able to repress the confident grin that had crossed his face. Not only was there a strong hope, but there was also the fact that Sue was about to give him a son. A son. She'd spent the entirety of her pregnancy insisting that she was carrying a boy, and had shunned off all of Reed's attempts to tell her that it could be a girl. From the very start, she'd known it was a boy, and he mentally reminded himself to listen to her intuition a lot more.

He placed his hand on her cheek, stroking it softly. She smiled, leaning into his touch, but didn't open her eyes. "Sue..._Susie_, open your eyes, sweetheart."

"Hey, Reed." She told him weakly, smiling up at him.

"Hi, darling." He smiled back, kissing her briefly. Even though she appeared to be rather spaced out on the drugs, at least she wasn't in any pain at the moment.

"I take it I'm still alive." She assumed. "Or am I just in heaven now?"

For a moment, he was glad that she considered heaven as being at his side, but his grin wasn't because of this. "You're still alive." He confirmed, his other hand wrapping around hers tightly. "And you're going to stay that way."

She smiled. "And the baby?" She asked hopefully.

He nodded. "They think that he's going to pull through as well." He assured her.

Tears immediately rolled down her cheeks, relief overcoming the confusion and disorientation that surrounded her. She and her baby were going to be okay. "_He_?" She asked after a moment.

Reed smiled, happy tears forming in his own eyes. "You were right, Sue." He told her. "We're having a boy."

"We are?" She asked, excitement clear in her exhausted voice. Reed nodded again, finding that he actually laughed at this knowledge, as did Sue. "_Wow_."

"Yeah, wow." He agreed

"Are you happy with that?" She asked him, after he kissed her again. "I know you thought we were having a girl..."

"How can I _not _be happy with that, Sue?" He asked her incredulously, fatherly pride welling up within him. "This is our baby, and this is the..._absolute best thing _that has ever happened in my entire life."

She smiled, squeezing his hand into her own shape. "I guess the contractions will start again soon." She assumed.

"Yeah, they're going to induce them in a few minutes." He said, looking over his shoulder to where the midwives and the doctors were preparing for the birth once again.

She let out a laughing breath. "Shame there's no way to do it without them." She mused aloud. "They really hurt."

"I know." He told her, admiring her with all the pride in his heart for what she was going through to bring their child into the world safely. "I know they hurt, but you're doing great."

"What happens after the baby is born?" She asked. "What are they going to do to him?"

"They're going make sure that he's okay." He told her simply. "At the worst, they think that he'll only need a blood transfusion."

But Sue didn't hear the upside of that. She only heard the first part. "They're going to take him away?" She asked quietly.

"Not too far." He assured her, knowing that after all that she had been through, that she wouldn't want to lose sight of her baby. "We'll still be able to see him."

"Promise?" She asked.

"I promise."

"Will it hurt him?"

He shook his head. "No, darling, he won't feel a thing." He reassured her.

"Okay." She nodded, taking a deep breath. "Okay, that's okay. As long as it doesn't hurt him."

Even now, when she was being told that all the pain that had driven her over the edge hours before was about to return, she was more concerned about the life they had created, and whether or not he would be in any pain. He smiled. She always put everyone else before herself. She wouldn't be who she was if she didn't. It was what she was made of; it was why she was here. He leaned down, pressing his lips to hers, and whilst all their previous kisses had been ones of stolen hope, this was slower. They didn't care about the other people in the room; but this was how this was supposed to happen. Things were meant to be okay, and now that they were finally turning things around, he needed to kiss her, and not pull back immediately because it was necessary. He needed to feel the love and passion that had created the life they were fighting for, and, as usual, he wasn't disappointed.

"I love you, _so much_." He whispered against her lips.

"I love you too." She replied, smiling against him.

"You can do this." He assured her. "No matter how much it hurts, I know that you can do this."

"Are you going to be here?" She asked him, a tint of worry in her voice at his answer. "They're not going to make you leave like Johnny?"

He shook his head firmly. "No, I'm not going anywhere."

She smiled up at him, but before either of them could speak again, Dr. Philips approached her, a syringe in his hands. "Okay, Mrs. Richards, are you ready to give this another try?" He asked her in a falsely bright voice.

"As I'll ever be." She half groaned. She was excited about bringing her child into the world, but she wasn't happy about the pain returning.

"That's what I like to hear." Dr. Philips told her. "I'm going to give you a shot of this," He said, as he inserted the needle into her arm, both of them watching her eyes clench up at the point where the needle dived beneath her skin. "And it's going to induce the contractions to start again." He explained, whilst she numbly nodded.

"How long will that take to work?" Reed asked, as Dr. Philips extracted the syringe and made to cross to the other side of the room.

"It could take a few minutes, or half an hour, or even-"

"Ah!" Sue exclaimed, her hand flying to her stomach as she almost doubled over, struggling into a sitting position as pain contorted her face.

"-Or even straight away." Dr. Philips finished.

Reed turned his attention to his wife, and stroked back her hair, feeling her grip intensify on his hand. "That's it, sweetheart," he whispered to her as he watched her work her way through another contraction. "It's almost over now."


	7. Chapter 7: So Beweildering

Ben had been alone for quite some time now. About half an hour, at least. He wasn't sure what was happening on the other side of the door, where Reed and Sue were separate from him, but the sudden cry out from Sue about five minutes prior told him that they had let her contractions start again. That worried him, but he remembered what the doctor had told Reed before the Fantastic leader had bolted back to his wife's side. They had an answer.

The shuffling of feet near to him attracted his attention away from the front cover of a magazine he had been staring at blankly. Looking up, he saw his younger team mate standing at his side, hands shoved in his pockets awkwardly.

"Johnny."

"Hey." Johnny replied, giving a brief smile.

"You came back." Ben observed.

"Yeah...Dad wanted to be here." He nodded.

"Oh." Ben accepted, but didn't see the presence of the senior Storm anywhere near them. "Where is he?"

Johnny jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing in the direction of the coffee machine. Lo and behold, standing before it was the elder man, frowning slightly as he toyed with some loose change from his pocket. "Coffee." Johnny said simply. "Says he couldn't function without it."

Ben nodded for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. "So _that's _where Susie gets it from." He mused aloud.

Johnny's attention cast towards the doors. "What's happening in there?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know." Ben said honestly. "Reed hasn't come out again since you left, but from the noise in there, I think they've started her contractions again."

His face fell dangerously. "Didn't they say that was dangerous?"

"I think they've got a way around it." Ben revealed. "Just after you left, they came out and told Reed that they had an answer."

Johnny's worry seemed to calm somewhat, but the fact that it was there still remained a burden on his shoulders. He fell down into the seat beside him. "That's..._good_." He decided, even though he seemed to have arrived just in time to listen to the screaming again. "That's definitely good."

"Yeah." Ben agreed slowly.

Frank approached them, but the usually bright smile wasn't there as he greeted Ben. He held out his hand, which Ben awkwardly took in his own as gently as possible, and shook it, a saddened smile gracing his features. "Good afternoon, Ben."

"How are you doing, Mr. Storm?" Ben asked.

"Oh, please, call me Frank." He insisted. "There is no need for formalities between friends."

The word _'friends' _brought a meaningful smile to Ben's rocky face. "I guess not." He agreed.

"Any news?" He asked, his eyes hovering on the doors that his daughter lay behind.

"The doctors say that they have an answer, and they've started the contractions up again." Ben repeated, noticing that Johnny didn't react this time; however Frank did, even though it was a simple, numb nod.

"But...she's not on her own?" He checked.

"Reed's with her." He assured the elder man, noting the clear similarity between Johnny and his father when it came to worrying about Sue being alone through this. "I don't think they could get him away from her side with ten armed men."

"Try fifty." Johnny corrected, an amused look crossing his face for a moment, reminding them that, despite the panic, their usual prankster was still in there.

Frank nodded, agreeing with them both. "I always liked that man." He said simply, sitting down beside his son. "When it comes to your daughter, you know straight away when that someone is going to look after them, no matter what." He took a sip of the burning hot coffee. "Reed's that man for her."

Ben took a deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh. "Let's hope that nothing comes between that today."

----

The midwife examining Sue nodded to herself, a confidence on her face that had underlying lines of worry among it. However sure they were that this hormonal control was going to work, there was still the fear that it wasn't. "Okay, Mrs. Richards." She announced, lifting her head to face Sue with a smile. "You're fully dilated; it's time to start pushing."

Sue looked at her in disbelief, wondering how, after all she was doing at the moment, there was anything else that could zap the energy out of her. Reed was at her side, one of his strong arms supporting her back as she sat up, and the other firmly gripping the hand that she clutched at him with. Her other hand was braced against the opposite side of the mattress, digging her fingernails into the side of it every time a contraction hit her.

However, another half an hour of contractions was all that it took for her to become fully dilated. She supposed that she was lucky, because it could have taken hours longer, but she was too exhausted and in so much pain to recognise whether it had been a minute or a day. Already she was inwardly laughing at the fact that only that morning, she was sitting at breakfast, and cleaning the house with the radio blaring full blast...and now she was screaming on a bed, and hoping to God that her and her baby survived. Her blonde hair was falling from the hair grip once again, sticking to the warm sheen covering her skin. No matter how many times Reed cooled her with a compress, she felt as if she was burning up to a temperature rivalling her brother's, and her flawless skin was almost bright red from strain. Did she feel attractive at that moment? Definitely not. Yet as Reed watched her struggling to bring their child into the world against all odds, he wondered whether he had ever seen her looking more beautiful.

"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" She realised with an inward groan when the midwife announced that it was time.

Dr. Philips gave a nod from her other side. "I'm afraid so, Mrs. Richards, but don't worry, we're all here to help."

"It's going to be fine, Sue, it'll be great." Reed assured her, kissing the side of her head from where he stood.

She turned and faced him, a sudden panic in her eyes. "What if I can't do this?" She asked.

"You can." He assured her. "I _know _you can."

"But what if I can't?" She insisted.

"Look at me, Sue." He instructed, and she did. "We're going to do this _together_, okay? Me and you, and our baby. Think about that. Think about how our life is going to be...about how great it will be to hold our son for the first time...think about him growing up, learning new things, smiling up at you...hold on to that, okay?"

The images in her head caused her to nod, with a new found determination set on her face. "Okay."

"Okay, are you ready?" He asked her.

"I think so." She nodded again.

"Don't worry." He told her again with a smile. "It's going to be okay."

"Alright, Mrs. Richards," The midwife said from her side. "When you feel the next contraction, I want you to start pushing."

Sue nodded, waiting for the inevitable wave of pain. Anxious, she realised that this was it. It was happening, and it was happening now. In a short while, her baby would be taking his first lone breaths, and she would no longer be carrying him inside of her. She would be able to hold him properly, see him open his eyes, hear his cries and be able to calm them. She would be able to meet her son.

It was this thought that gave her strength to push when the contraction hit her. Feeling the baby move inside of her hurt more than she could ever imagine, and she didn't hesitate to scream out in pain. The midwife, Reed and the doctors all coached her through it, but she ignored everyone save her husband. At the end of the day, it only mattered that he was there at her side, as he promised he would be.

When it was over, the midwife told her to stop, and she collapsed back towards the mattress, stopping when Reed's support kept her upright. "You're doing great, darling." He grinned at her.

"God, it _really _hurts!" She told him, her eyes winced from the pain.

The next contraction came, and Sue pushed once more, the voice of the midwife reaching her. "I can see a head, keep going, Mrs. Richards."

"See, Sue." Reed said excitedly, focusing on her. "It's almost over, you're nearly done."

"One more push should clear the head."

However, having cleared the head, a panicked expression fixated on Sue's face, and she collapsed back once more. Reed caught the look on her face, and she looked up at him, the exhaustion stronger than ever.

"Sue?"

She shook her head. "I just...I can't. I don't feel _right_, Reed." He frowned at her worriedly. "Something's wrong."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Richards." Dr. Philips assured her from her other side. "We're controlling your hormone levels, and you and the baby are completely safe."

Reed however, looked at him warily for a second, remembering his note to trust Sue's intuition. She said something was wrong, and he trusted her, but right now, another contraction was building up, and she had to focus. "Come on, sweetheart." He encouraged her, tightening his grip on her hand, which she returned. "One more push, and it's all over. One more, I know you can do it."

She took a deep breath, and nodded. "Right. _One more_."

"One more." He confirmed.

One more was enough, and moments later, the sound of Sue's pain was replaced with another sound, a sound so innocent and new that it could only be the first cry of a newborn baby. Reed smiled as he looked towards the cry, seeing a glimpse of his son being wrapped in a blanket and whisked away to the other side of the room to be checked over. However, that moment was enough for him to see the face of his first born child, the baby that they had created.

"You hear that, Sue?" He asked, turning back towards his wife, slowly. "That's our---_Sue_?" But she wasn't panting for breath, bathed in a motherly glow as he had expected her to be.

She was unconscious.


	8. Chapter 8: So Good On Paper

"Did you hear that?" Johnny asked, his head jerking up so suddenly that it would have shocked them all had they not all responded to the sound. He locked eyes with Ben, who nodded.

"It sounded like a baby, all right."

Johnny jumped to his feet. "I'm going to look through the window." He announced.

Frank's voice stopped him. "Johnny, the quarantine--"

"I'm not going through the door, or anything." He explained, feeling like a ten year old boy again. "I just want to look through the window and see the kid."

As Johnny all but bounded towards the window, peeking through the tiny window in the door, the quarantine men watched him, posed ready to grab him should he try and get through the door. Frank sighed, shaking his head as he looked over at Ben.

"He never could just sit still." He muttered under his breath, causing Ben to chuckle slightly, nodding in agreement.

Pressing his face close against the glass, Johnny immediately saw a baby being tended to, and grinned. "Oh yeah, it's _definitely _a baby!" He announced over his shoulder brightly. Turning his face, he tried to find Sue, but his sister's form was blocked from sight by the rushing of doctors around her. Frowning, he leaned closer into the glass, as if that were going to get him any closer, but he failed in this attempt. He did, however, spot Reed in the crowd, trying to get closer to Sue but failing - a look of panic and anguish covering his face.

And that's when he saw his unconscious sister lying on the bed.

"Oh, _no_."

----

"Sue, don't do this, wake up, baby,_ wake up_!" Reed pleaded from her side, his hand still clutching hers even though the two doctors and another midwife were at her side, linking her up to various different wires.

Dr. Philips stood before him. "Dr. Richards, I need you to stand back and let us work." He said calmly, as if there were no such drama happening around them.

Reed shook his head. "No, I can't-"

"If you don't stand back, we can't save her." Dr. Philips insisted, cutting him off firmly.

_Save her_? Did that mean she was dying?

At this thought, Reed seemed to zone into another universe. He stood back, numbly allowing the words to wash over him. At the doctors busied around her, pressing different buttons and a lot of other protocol that he didn't have the mental capacity to understand with his wife in such a position, he found her hand slipping from his grasp, and falling limply at her side.

Then, a monitor started beeping, a long monotonous sound that echoed in his mind. It was probably a sound that would haunt him forever. Dr. Philips looked up at the monitor. "She's flat lining, call the code team." He announced to the room.

One of the midwives reached above the bed and pressed a blue button, which made no sound, but clearly sent out a call of some kind. Reed frowned in despair, his face falling all but for the frown that seemed permanently rested on his brow. Too much was happening. It was too loud. The monitors blaring, the doctors calling to each other...the baby crying...god, the baby was crying...why was no one comforting him? Should he go and see his son, or should he stay at his dying wife's side? Too much was happening.

"Sue..."

"Push one of epi."

"She _has _to be okay..."

"Dr. Richards, you _have _to stand back."

"What happened? What went wrong?"

"Dr. Richards--"

"_You said they'd both be okay_!" Reed suddenly shouted out, unable to contain the anger any longer. They'd told him there was hope; they'd told him that she would be okay. But she wasn't okay. She wasn't breathing.

Dr. Philips seemed to take him aside for a moment, even though it was just so that Reed wouldn't be able to see the other doctor performing CPR on Sue. "She experienced a final radiation surge, which only hit after the baby had been delivered." He explained. "Unfortunately, it was too strong for her heart to handle."

"What does that-?"

"Her heart has stopped, Dr. Richards."

----

Outside, Johnny had stepped back, unable to look at the horrific sight of his sister now being resuscitated by another doctor. Reed was fighting to get to her side, but was on the verge of being restrained. The baby was still crying too.

Then, he was almost pushed out of the way from where he stood in the middle of the hall, by the arrival of the code team that the midwife had called. They opened the door, but as it closed behind them, and Johnny collapsed into the chair between Ben and his father, the door caught on a stray piece of tubing which prevented it from closing fully. The door only remained open a fraction, but it was enough for them to hear everything that went on inside.

"We're losing her," One doctor announced. "Charge to one-eighty."

"Sue, _please_, wake up." Reed was sobbing desperately, and it pained them all to hear him like that; his cries combined with that of his newborn child's. Two Richards' crying whilst another lay dying.

"Nothing." Another doctor announced, after the sound of Sue being shocked was heard.

"Charge to two hundred." The doctor ordered.

"Come on, Sue, _please _don't do this to me."

"Still nothing."

"Push four of epi, and charge to three-sixty."

"Sue, _I love you_, please don't die. _Please, don't die_."

At this, the three sitting in the chairs broke away from the sound of the chaos inside. The gaze of the two Storm men was averted to the ground, Johnny even covering his face with his hands.

"Oh, my." Frank said weakly.

"_Jesus Christ_." Johnny swore into his hands, sounding as if he, too, were on the verge of tears.

Ben frowned at the two quarantine guards. "You guys wanna shut that door?" He snapped gruffly.

One of them noticed that the door was, in fact, open, and bent to remove the tubing that prevented it closing. In the final moments before the door was closed, they heard the words that they had all been holding on for.

"Okay, we've got her back."

----

"Oh, thank God!" Reed sobbed, when he heard the steady sound of her heartbeat filling the room from the same monitor which, for the past four minutes, had been telling them that the heartbeat was gone. He covered his face with his hands as he became overwhelmed. "Thank God." He repeated into his hands, a mere whisper.

"She's back." Dr. Philips confirmed.

"Vitals are strong." The midwife nodded.

"The radiation?"

"Back to the levels it was at before the labour."

"Good."

Reed, however, was frowning as he looked at his almost lifeless wife lying before him. "Why hasn't she woke up?" He asked frantically. "Isn't she meant to wake up?"

"Not necessarily." Dr. Philips told him. "Her body is taking time to recuperate from the experience. It has been hard on her, and this is her body's way of regaining strength."

"When will she wake up?" He asked.

"When she's ready."

He frowned harder. "How long will that be?"

"It could be a few hours, or it could be a few days. We're unable to tell, but we can monitor her progress, which is what we will be doing, of course."

"But, she has to wake up soon!" He insisted. "She wants to see her son!"

"I'm sorry, Dr. Richards." Dr. Philips told him. "But when she wakes up isn't something we are able to control." He looked to his side, away from Reed, over to the midwives in the corner. "How is the baby holding up?" He asked.

"His breathing is strong, and his heartbeat is even stronger." A midwife grinned confidently.

"Any affects from the radiation?" He checked.

The midwife, however, shook her head. "None whatsoever. This little one has an unusually high tolerance to the radiation. He won't even need a blood transfusion."

Reed's heart lifted at this. His son was _okay_. He was _alive_, and he was okay.

"I want him under strict observation." Dr. Philips ordered. "Someone watching him all the time, no questions. Any changes in that tolerance and we'll need to take action and fast."

"Absolutely." The midwife said, taking the baby in her arms and making to leave the room.

Reed frowned, following them with his eyes. "_Wait_, where are you taking him?" He asked, moving forwards towards his son, but finding that Dr. Philips stopped him.

"We can't have him in with the other newborns in case of any harm being passed on from the proximity to the radiation." He explained. "So we'll be placing him down in one of the intensive care units."

"But you said he was fine-"

"And he is." He assured Reed. "It's only a safety precaution, it's not because he's in any danger."

Reed nodded slowly, but the lump was still in his throat as he asked in a tiny, heartbroken voice. "Can't I at least see him before you take him away?" He asked, aware now that he hadn't even bothered to wipe away the tears that still flowed onto his cheeks.

"It's imperative that we get him settled." Dr. Philips said, basically meaning 'no'.

"He's _my son_." Reed argued.

"You'll be able to see him as soon as he's settled into the unit." Dr. Philips said.

"And _Sue_?" He asked. "What about Sue, where is she going?"

"She'll also be on a private ward." He explained. "But again, only because of a precaution, and for privacy."

Reed nodded. "But they're both going to be okay?" He checked again.

"As long as they both remain stable, we're happy."

"And they are?" He asked. "Stable?"

"Yes, they are." He confirmed, putting his hand on Reed's shoulder. "You're a very lucky family, Dr. Richards. In situations similar to this, it's unheard of for either mother or child to survive. They're strong fighters."

"Yeah." Reed croaked out, his eyes falling on Sue's still body. "Yeah, they are."


	9. Chapter 9: Daddy Breezes In

As they prepared to move Sue to another room, they gave Reed directions to seek out his son further into the maternity wing. However, as soon as he was out the door, Ben, Johnny and Frank stood up, on their feet in a matter of seconds.

"What happened?" Johnny asked, going straight up to Reed, and trying to crane his neck around him. "Is she okay?"

Reed nodded. "She's okay now." He said, with a sigh of relief he hadn't been aware he was holding. "They're _both _okay."

"They _both _made it?" Ben asked hopefully.

Reed gave a proud smile, filled with relief and hope. "Yeah, they both made it." He said, in a voice that was choked with tears. However, these weren't the tears of despair he had been wrestling with a moment ago, these were the happy tears that were supposed to be present at the birth of his child.

The sigh of relief echoing in the corridor was contagious, and all around him, the men's shoulders lost their burdens.

"Well, thank goodness for that." Frank sighed, a smile on his lips.

Reed shook the hand of his father-in-law. "Hello, Mr. Storm." He greeted.

Frank, however, kept hold of Reed's hand, and put his other on the younger man's shoulder. "You have just become the father of my grandchild, Reed Richards." He smiled proudly. "You are in _no _place to be calling me 'Mr. Storm'."

Reed smiled at this, and it wasn't long before Johnny asked: "So, is it a boy or a girl?"

"It's a boy." Reed grinned. "A _boy_."

Ben clapped him on the shoulder with a rocky hand, and for once, Reed didn't mind that he stumbled under the weight. "Congratulations, man. Knew you'd get there someday."

"Thanks." Reed smiled at the man who had been his best friend for so many years.

"What about Susan?" Frank asked. "Can we see her?"

"They're just moving her to a private room." He explained.

"But she's okay?" Johnny asked.

"In a manner, yes."

"What does that mean?"

Reed took a deep breath. "After the baby was born, there was a final surge of radiation. It was too much for her, and it caused her heart to stop for a while, but they got her back, and she's breathing okay. She just hasn't woken up yet." He explained.

Johnny frowned, confused. "What does that mean?" He asked. "Is that good, or bad?"

"Mostly good." Reed confirmed "It's just her body resting and regaining strength, it's not because she's in any pain."

"When will she wake up?" Frank asked, eager to see that his daughter really was fine.

"They don't know." Reed admitted. "It's just a matter of when she's ready."

Frank sighed. "At least they're both okay."

Reed nodded, that was the main thing. He looked down in his hands, seeing the piece of paper held between his fingers. _Directions to his son_. He looked up at his family. "I'm going to see the baby while they move Sue." He told them. "I didn't get to see him in there because of everything that happened. Do you want to come?"

"Do we ever!" Johnny said, practically leading the way before he stopped, and remembered that he didn't have the slightest clue where he was going.

----

"Which one is he?" Johnny asked, as they were met with a window showing off many babies.

"He's not in there." Reed said, going further up the corridor. "He's in one of the intensive care units."

Ben frowned. "But you said-"

"He's _okay_." Reed said hurriedly. "He's okay; they just don't want him around the other babies because of the radiation." They came to another room, which was more open-plan, and had no door shutting it off. "There he is." He grinned.

They entered the small area to see a nurse standing beside the new baby, who was lying on his back inside one of the clear plastic cradles. A blue blanket was covering his lower body, and he had already been changed into a sleep suit that Reed had given them from Sue's bag. On his wrist was a tiny I.D tag reading _'Baby Richards' _as they had yet to name the tiny boy.

Reed smiled down at his son, immediately standing over the little boy and stroking his head. He wasn't crying anymore, as he was sleeping, yet even in his slumber, he sought out the owner of the hand. Reed grinned, allowing his son to hold tight to his little finger.

"He's going to look a _lot _like Susan." Frank announced.

"Wow, lucky him." Johnny said sarcastically.

His father fixed him with a stare. "Johnny."

"_What_?" He asked, wondering what he'd done wrong.

Ben laughed lightly. "Some things never change." He mused, before looking down at the innocent life before him. "He _must _be like Susie though - he's sleeping." He pointed out.

Johnny agreed. "We don't see Reed doing much of that."

Frank gave him another scolding look. "You're supposed to _congratulate _new fathers, not _tease _them, Jonathan Storm."

Johnny went and stood beside Reed, putting his arm over his shoulder. "He loves it, don't you, Reedy boy?" He teased further.

Reed, however, hadn't been listening to any of their exchange. He was too busy watching the life before him, transfixed by the tiny, sleeping child who, hours before, he had been warned might die. He was strong, and if his grip on his finger didn't tell him that, the fact that he had already faced death and won did. "That's _our _son." He whispered in awe, never drawing his eyes away from his child.

"Sure is." Johnny confirmed.

"We've waited for this for so long, and he's _finally _here."

"Hold up," Johnny interrupted. "Are you going to get all emotional on us now?"

Reed looked away from his son to give Johnny an emotional look. "I nearly lost both of them today, Johnny, and for about five minutes, I actually did lose my wife." He turned back to the baby. "I'm _more than entitled_ to get a little emotional right now."

The room was silent for a moment, and then Frank piped up. "He's got strong shoulders, like his father."

Reed smiled, and Johnny smirked: "I wonder if they're _stretchy _like his old Dad as well."

Ben looked suddenly amazed. "Well, there's something we never thought about."

"What's that?" Reed asked, still not looking up.

"Does the baby get any powers like ours?" Ben asked.

Reed thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "I honestly have no idea." He admitted. "The doctors said that he had an unusually high tolerance to the radiation. They were ready to give him a blood transfusion after the birth, but he didn't need anything."

"Well, that's something." Ben pointed out.

"As long as he's okay, and he's happy, and healthy and everything else...I don't care whether he inherits our powers or not. I don't care at all."

Frank smiled at his son-in-law. "Spoken like a true father." He complimented, to which Reed smiled back.

"Well," Ben smirked. "He does have good practice with Johnny."

Johnny frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"He's right, son." Frank nodded.

"I've got to admit," Reed also agreed. "He taught Sue how to be a mother, it only makes sense-"

"_I am an adult_." Johnny insisted firmly.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Ben told him.

"I'm an adult." He repeated. "I'm an uncle now, too. I can be responsible."

Reed gave him a look. "You can be an uncle without being responsible, you know." He pointed out, but then doubled back when he realised that he was just inviting trouble. "Not that I'm encouraging you to. If you're going to be taking care of him on your own occasionally, I'd much rather you are responsible."

"I _am _responsible!" He insisted.

The argument was stopped when the midwife checked the baby's blood pressure, and then smiled at Reed. "He's a beautiful baby," She complimented. "You must be very proud."

"I am, thank you." He smiled back, and then noticed how much she was writing down. "Is he okay?"

"He's doing very well." She confirmed.

"Thank God." Reed breathed out.

"Babies have the same instincts as the rest of us when it comes to death." She pointed out. "When they want to live, they will, because they fight for it. And this baby is a fighter."

"He sure is." Reed agreed.

"The doctors sent a message to say that your wife is in room 13-C." She added. "It's just around the corner, when you'd like to go see her."

"Thank you." Reed smiled, and looked down at the baby once more. He placed a kiss to the baby's head, inhaling that sweet, newborn smell. "See you soon, son. I'm going to see your mom."

They all went to follow Reed out of the room, except Johnny, who remained where he was at the baby's side. "Johnny, are you coming?" Frank asked, when Ben and Reed had already left.

Johnny looked up, and shook his head. "No, I'm going to stay here with the kid for a bit." He said. "So he's not on his own."

Frank nodded. "Okay." He said, before following the others towards Sue's room.

----

She'd been moved, like they explained she would be. Thankfully, she was close to the baby as well. It was only a matter of turning a corner and going down another hall, and then it was the door on the right that concealed his wife from the rest of the hospital. Reed stood outside of the door for the moment, and then looked between Frank and Ben, who stood either side of him.

"Where's Johnny?" He asked.

"He stayed with the baby." Frank explained. "He doesn't want to see Susan like this."

Reed nodded. He didn't want to see her like that either, but he had to. This was his wife, after all. He needed to be at her side and help her through this. At the end of the day, her father and brother could be there as much as he was, but it was his wife, the woman that he loved, that lay before them all.

Ben was the first to move towards the door, opening it when the father and husband found themselves frozen by it. He stepped through, motioning for them to enter behind him. Frank did so, his gaze immediately falling onto his daughter with a sigh, and then Reed followed, albeit more tentatively than his father-in-law. As they crossed over to her bedside, Reed inhaled shakily, collapsing into the chair beside her before his legs gave way beneath him.

"Reed?" Ben asked, leaning closer to him. "You okay, man?"

Reed swallowed, and nodded hard, forcing a determination that had abandoned him. "Yeah, I just...I just thought that she might have woken up by now."

It had only been twenty minutes since she had lost consciousness, and already, he was pining for her. He leaned forwards, taking deep breaths and trying to calm himself down, but it wasn't working. He was still feeling his heart beating erratically in his chest, although he was so sure that, at any moment, it was going to stop completely. He choked on the air that he had been forcing himself to breathe, and let out a half-strangled sound. He didn't care that the others were watching him, because it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Sue was sick, and if she didn't make it...

"She's going to make it." Reed said, leaning over to the bed she was lying in, and lifting her hand from the white sheets. He grasped it tightly in his own, and brought it to his lips, where he kissed her knuckles. "She's going to be okay. She's going to make it." He repeated, almost like a mantra, hoping that feeling his touch was enough to wake her up.


	10. Chapter 10: Baby Sneezes

**Chapter 10:**

Twenty-four hours is a long time to wait when you're waiting for the woman you love to wake up. The whole world seemed a lot darker, because he had never felt more alone in his life, not even when she had left him all those years before. He felt alone, but he was never actually by himself. Frank came to visit his daughter and grandson every day, bringing with him the news from the outside world. When he finally got around to leaving the hospital, he would pay close attention to all the news speculation about the furious concealment of the recently dubbed 'Baby Fantastic' by the journalists; when Johnny had heard this, he'd borrowed a pen from a nurse, and crossed out 'Baby Richards' on the nametag, replacing it with 'Baby Fantastic'. This simple action left all of the maternity nurses pouring attention onto the newborn.

Johnny finally brought himself to visit his sister's side. Even though he hated hospitals, he stayed there the entire time, adamant to support Reed with his idea that neither Sue nor the baby was alone. When Reed had to be with his wife, Johnny remained with his new nephew, watching the innocence of new life and hoping that the strength of this brand new child was enough to guide his sister back to them. He came bearing sunflowers, Sue's favourites, placing them in a previously empty vase at Sue's side in the room. He might have been a hot-head, but for the first few minutes, it had been clear that he was trying not to cry for his sister, but Reed was the only one who noticed. He said nothing.

For the majority of the time, Reed stayed in the chair at her bedside, facing the blind-covered window which was still drawn shut. They'd taken to keeping it drawn completely after some newspaper helicopters tried to fly dangerously close to the hospital in hopes of seeing either Sue or the baby. They had failed, however, and according to Frank's report, they had also been fired. Still, when people other than his family did check in to see how she was, he paid no attention to them. He couldn't give them an answer other than "the same" when they asked how she was, not when the only thing that made sense to him other than to stay at her side was to be with their son.

He knew that he wasn't going to forget this feeling for the rest of his life. Without a doubt, he loved his wife and child. The moment that he had walked in and seen her lying there, the mere presence of beeping in the room being the only indicator that she was alive, had been enough to send his head and his heart into some dark place, where he was helpless to do anything except to wait for her eyes to open, and bring him out of it. He didn't understand how this could have happened to her, to them.

He hurt. His heart _actually _hurt. He always thought that the expression of feeling your heart breaking was just words to try and explain to someone how it felt to lose the person you loved. However, the person he had almost lost wasn't gone anymore, and yet there was still a pain in his chest that begged for some sedation against it. He knew that the only person who could take away this pain was the person he was sitting there fighting for.

The only thing that helped him was visiting his son. The life that they created which lay healthy and kicking around the corner.

He needed to be strong now. He had to be strong, because Sue wasn't.

----

Four days passed, and there was still no change in Sue's condition. She was still sleeping, regenerating her mind and body before she would wake. However, on a lighter note, the baby was doing very well. So well, in fact, that they were allowing him out of the quarantine. Reed had been more than relieved when they had brought him into the room, which would now be shared between Sue and the baby. The clear plastic crib now at the side of her bed, so that when Reed was sat in the chair beside her, he was directly before his son too - there when either of them needed him.

Holding his son for the first time had brought a new pride into him. Even though so many bad things were hanging over his shoulders, he was unable to suppress the smile that surfaced when his son lay cooing in his arms for the first time. He'd imagined the remarkable feeling of holding his newborn son, yet nothing could have prepared him for the overwhelming surge of love that he felt for this child. _His _child. _Their _child.

On the fifth morning, Reed was at the side of the bed, holding their baby son in his arms. The nurses had asked him many times what they wished to name the child, yet he never answered them with a name. That was a decision he and Sue would come to together. He wasn't about to name their first born without her. It was their right as parents to name their child together, because she was going to wake up soon. He knew it. Something in his heart told him that. Soon. She'd be awake soon.

But how soon is soon? His mind would ask him.

Opposite him, on the other side of the bed, was Johnny, nursing a coffee in his hands. Neither of them said a word, and both of them found more comfort in their silences than they could have done with false assurances. At least when they weren't talking, they could listen to the gentle breaths and sighs of the baby that gave them their hope.

Johnny sighed, his hands coming up to cover his eyes as he tried to rub the tiredness from them. He'd joined Reed in Sue's room the previous evening, and still, the sleep that he had evaded since he arrived was creeping over his mind. He couldn't sleep, not now. Not yet, anyway. He needed to know that Sue was going to be okay before he slept. Too many times he had tried to sleep since she had come to hospital, and he had been awaken by the disturbing screams of his sister in what he assumed where his nightmares. He needed closure first.

Reed was in a similar position, yet on occasions, he allowed himself to rest his head. It was all very well remaining awake to watch Sue, but with the baby to care for at the same time, he needed to sleep, and quite often it was on a 'sleep when the baby sleeps' rota - unplanned and very brief. He just missed her so much. Losing Sue would have been unbearable. It would be the same as losing the other half of his soul, knowing that it couldn't function without her half. He was drowning, but there was no coming up for air like there was when she was beside him. She wasn't there to save him, because he hadn't been able to save him.

He was lucky for her to have been revived when the code team had arrived. He knew that. He knew that they had been ready to give up, as it had been so long without a heartbeat already. He knew that Sue would be in pain when she woke up, because of the bruising their fists would have caused when they had first tried to revive her, but surely, she wouldn't mind, because it has saved her life.

But that didn't change the fact that it had been five days, and all he could do was sit at her side, soothing their son when he cried.

----

On the sixth day, Frank entered the room and saw Johnny sitting there alone, whispering to his nephew. There was emptiness to the room, despite the replying coos to Johnny's mumbled comments, and the beeping of the monitors. Something was missing.

"Where is Reed?" Frank asked, as his son looked up at him from his seat at Sue's side.

Johnny looked up at him, almost worriedly. "He's...he's not good at the moment." He explained. "I told him I'd watch Sue and the kid so he could get some air."

----

Air hadn't exactly been what Reed had left to get. He couldn't leave the hospital, because of the reporters that had tried to pounce on him as soon as he had reached the doors. Instead, he'd found himself a quiet spot to the side of the lobby, ignoring the few people surrounding him so early in the morning. He didn't care for the children who looked at Mr. Fantastic, and saw a broken, helpless man instead of the hero they looked up to. He didn't know how to be that man at the moment.

Frank went down to the lobby, and heard Reed before he'd seen him. From the other side of the hall, he could hear the muffled sobs that came from his son-in-law. Reed, however, was so overwhelmed by his sobs that he didn't even notice someone was beside him until Frank put his hand down on his shoulder.

It had been the first time that he had properly broken down since Sue had been revived, six days ago. He'd kept a lot bottled up in that time. His face was pale and pasty underneath his slightly stubble. His usually unruly hair was even more all over the place from where his fingers had been tugging on it through his cries. Tears were covering his cheeks, continuously replaced by the fresh ones which streamed from his red eyes.

Frank lowered himself into the chair beside Reed, turning slightly so that he was facing him. Reed simply shook his head, stumbling over his words through the cries he was powerless to stop. "I can't-she's not-I just-"

"Calm down." Frank said, his voice gentle. "Breathe, calm down."

He didn't calm down, however, and continued to stumble over the words that he couldn't express. "She-she-she-"

"Son, will you stop and breathe for a second?" Frank instructed. Reed halted mid-stumble, realising for the first time who was beside him. Frank had always called him 'son' since the wedding, even though it was only his marriage to Sue that made this so. "Good, _much _better." Frank nodded, watching as Reed forced himself to take deep controlled breaths, even though he still had fresh tears running from his eyes. "Now, what's got you all like this?" He asked.

"I can't do this." He told his father-in-law weakly. "I just...I _need _her to wake up. I can't do this alone. I can't lose her."

"No one said you were going to." Frank pointed out. "Do you love my daughter?"

"More than you could ever imagine." Reed nodded.

"Then what are you doing hiding down here?"

Reed shook his head, half-laughing, ironically. "Because every day I sit there, and I think 'any minute now, she'll wake up', but she never does. I sit there, and I hope, and even though I know that she's going to wake up, that hope seems to get further and further away every time our son falls asleep in _my _arms instead of _hers_." Reed sighed. "I'm meant to be fighting for her, and I can't even do _that _properly."

Frank tightened his hand on Reed's shoulder. "You don't have to fight for her this time." He pointed out to him. "You've already done that, and you fought _well_. This time, you've got to help her fight, and give her a reason that makes the fighting worth it."

Reed was forcing himself to take deep breaths again, desperately trying to calm himself down before he felt he embarrassed himself any further in front of his father-in-law.

Frank stood up, bringing Reed to his feet. "Come with me."

----

Minutes later, they were back into the room that Sue lie in. Frank turned his back to Johnny, who was standing by the window with the baby asleep on his shoulder, and faced Reed. "Have you ever been to a funeral, and heard a baby start crying at the back of the room?" He asked him.

Reed nodded, remembering the sound of his cousin's newborn cries as his grandfather's funeral. "Yes."

Frank gave him a smile. "There's nothing more comforting for a funeral than that." He pointed out. "Hearing the innocence of life present at the disappearance of another." He turned away, leaving Reed confused in the centre of the room. Retrieving his grandson from his son, Frank went back over to Reed, just as Johnny left the room.

Reed held out his arms for his son, and Frank passed the child between them. Instantly, Reed adjusted to the weight in his arms, or rather, the lack of it. His son was a light child, that was to be sure. Despite his inner pain, he found that he was smiling to himself as he watched his child sleeping peacefully. Reed's gaze fell onto Sue for a moment, watching the similar peaceful expression on her face.

"You're only one man, Reed." Frank told him. "You can only do so much for her."

"I should have been able to do _more_." He said, shaking his head.

"You know as well as I do that you were doing everything that you could." Frank reminded him. "Besides, this is Susan. You know how she gets when you try to wrap her in cotton wool." Reed let out a small breath that could be mistaken for a laugh, realising that Frank was right. "Now, she's going to wake up. I have faith in that, and if faith is the only thing that I have to hold on to, then I'm going to hold on damn tight to it, but you've got to believe that as well."

"I want to believe so much." Reed said quietly, his eyes captured by his son squirming in his arms.

"Then what's stopping you?"

"I...I don't know." He realised.

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter...please review! The next chapter is the final one!**


	11. Chapter 11: Mommy Pleases

Another day passed, and another sunrise ended another day without her. Today was different though. Not for Sue, but for the baby. Today, the baby had decided that he wasn't very happy. The nurses had assured Reed that he didn't have a fever, and that he wasn't sick in any way, but Reed felt like something was wrong with his son. For an hour straight now, he had been screaming his tiny lungs away. But he wasn't hungry, he didn't need changing, he had been burped, he was being soothed, so there was only one logical explanation.

He wanted his mother.

He wanted to feel the connection that had sustained him for the first nine months of his life. He needed to be soothed by the other voice that had spoken to him during his first months of growth. He needed to experience the arms of the woman whose body had safely encased him and given him the means to survive. He needed his mother.

As much as Reed could do for his son, he wasn't his mother. He wasn't Sue.

So, he was pacing around the room. Johnny was at home with Ben, having almost collapsed on his feet with exhaustion, so their friend had taken him home, and Frank hadn't arrived yet that morning. Reed, therefore, was alone in the room with the baby and his unconscious wife. More than ever, he wanted Sue to be awake. He felt like he needed to hear her voice. As much as the nurses could assure him that he was holding the baby correctly, it wasn't Sue's voice that was telling him that.

He rubbed his hand up and down his son's back, soothing him along with the tiny whisperings in his ear, but it didn't seem to be working. Neither did the gentle bounces, or the rocking, or anything that he tried.

"_Please_," He begged of the baby. "Please, darling, stop crying."

But he didn't.

"Shh...It's okay. Daddy's here. _It's okay_. _Daddy's here_. Daddy's here."

By this point, an hour of constant screaming in his ear, and the permanent sight of his unmoving wife at his side, Reed was over the top of emotional. Tears stung at his eyes, and there was a lump in his throat that threatened to burst out.

"I know that you miss her." He assured the baby, who he knew didn't understand his words anyway, but he still spoke the words. "I know that you want your mother...I know. _I_ want her too. I want her to wake up, and I want her to be okay, but we've just got to hold out until she does wake up. But she loves you, okay? Mommy _loves _you. I promise you that, son. She loves you. I love you too. Nothing's _ever _going to change that. Even when she's asleep, she's _still _going to love you." Reed kissed the top of the baby's head, his cries faltering for a moment as he breathed in that sweet new-baby smell. "We've waited so long for you. We're always going to love you, my darling, no matter what."

And then, right at that moment, it happened.

"_Reed_."

The word was simple. His name. A word that he'd heard a thousand times every day of his life, but it had never meant more to him at that time. The reason it was special at that moment, was because of the person who had said his name.

"_Sue_." He whispered, his back to the bed at the moment. With their crying son held against his shoulder, he was almost too afraid to turn to face her. Was he imagining things? Was he simply wishing?

"Reed. Where are you?"

No, he _wasn't _wishing.

There was a pained desperation to her voice, which immediately brought her to his side. "Sue." He repeated. "I'm here. I'm right here."

There she was, looking up at him. The blue eyes that he'd not seen for almost a week were now looking up at him once again. With the hand that wasn't securing their son against his body, he clutched her own hand.

"Reed, what happened?" She asked him, a confused frown on her face.

_What happened?_

Where did he begin?

----

A doctor stepped out of the room, immediately met with four men before him. When the doctor had asked for a moment to examine her, Reed had called Frank, Ben and Johnny back to the hospital with the good news that she was awake. However, now that the four were waiting outside, with the baby still held against his shoulder, whimpering gently as his cries had exhausted themselves, they wanted answers about the woman that they all, in their own way, loved.

"Is she okay?" Reed asked immediately.

Dr. Philips nodded. "Yes, she's fine. The radiation has had no lasting effects, and she should be okay to leave the hospital within a few days." He confirmed, and the first real smile in days crossed Reed's face. "She's also very anxious to meet her son." He grinned, and Reed allowed himself into the room.

The sight that he had hoped for for days met him. Sue was sitting up in the bed, leaned back against the pillows propping her into position. Her blonde hair was spilling over her shoulders where she had released it from its hold in the hairgrips. She looked towards the door when it opened, and smiled broadly, albeit weakly, when she saw Reed there.

"Oh, _Sue_." He whispered when he saw her standing there. He crossed the room, leaning over to kiss her, which she eagerly returned. "How are you feeling?" He asked her.

"A bit sore, but other than that, I'm okay." She assured him.

He smiled at her, feeling emotion welling within him once again. "Thank God." He whispered, kissing her again and again, only stopping when their son whimpered again against his shoulder.

Sue looked towards him instantly. "Oh, Reed..." She said breathlessly, placing her hand on the back of her son's head. This was him. This was _their son_. The son she was seeing for the first time.

Reed gave her a smile. "You have _no idea _how much he's wanted his mother today." He told her. "Here, hold out your arms. It's about time he got a cuddle from you."

Sue smiled, tears instantly in her eyes as Reed placed their son into her arms for the first time - six days too late in her liking. However, the child instantly turned into her, his whimpers ceasing as his tiny hand reached out, latching onto the chest area of her nightgown. Tears spilled over her cheeks. He knew who she was. He _knew_.

"Oh, my God." She exclaimed, letting out a sob as she found herself overwhelmed. "_My son_." She whispered, and looked up at Reed with the most beautiful smile ever. "Our little boy."

Reed nodded, as she turned back to the child in her arms. For six days, he'd waited to see her holding their son. "The nurses won't get off my back." He told her. "They want to know what his name is. I said I wasn't deciding without you."

Sue looked down at her baby boy. The child that they'd created with a love built to last a lifetime. The tiny face before her stared up at her, deep blue eyes that she'd look into for the rest of her life, a turn up on the end of his nose just like her own, a chin that was identical to Reed's. Yes, this was their son. This was their baby. This is what made the waiting and the heartache worth it.

This, she realised, was the _ultimate _form of love.

"He's so...he's so _perfect_." She whispered breathlessly, tracing her finger down the side of his face as he reached out to grasp it in his tiny hands. Bending down, she placed a kiss to her baby son's forehead, inhaling the sweet smell of her first born.

And that's when a flash filled the room.

Looking up, she wasn't surprised to see her brother standing in the doorway, holding up the digital camera to his face. He crossed the room, looking at the display screen which showed the image he had just captured. "First picture with Mom, ready for the mantlepeice besides 'First picture with Dad'." He announced proudly, showing her the screen. "_Man_, I take good photos."

Sue smiled at the image. "Hi, Johnny."

"You okay, sis?" He asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. She nodded, and Johnny looked up at Reed. "You gonna stop worrying now?"

"Are _you_?" Reed challenged back, which caused Sue to laugh.

"Oh, pay no attention to them, sweetheart." Frank said to her, as he and Ben also entered the room. "Everyone was worrying." He said, patting the top of his daughter's hand. "I think if it wasn't for us, your poor husband might have broken down completely." Frank said, locking eyes with Reed and not mentioning the fiasco that had occurred the previous morning.

Sue smiled, and brought her son up to rest on her shoulder, her hand resting on his back as she placed a kiss to the top of his head, smiling even harder at the baby breath against her skin. "I love you, sweetheart." She whispered into his tiny ear.

Reed smiled, the only one close enough to have heard his wife's words to their son. He put his arm around her, kissing the top of her head. Yes, everything would be fine now.

----

A few hours later, Reed stepped outside of the hospital for the first time. He was met immediately with the flashing of the cameras, and the questions from the press which he had, previously, been dreading, but now he was proud to answer. At his side were Frank, Ben and Johnny, as Sue and the baby were up in the hospital sleeping. They were simply returning home temporarily to collect a chance of clothes for Sue and more sleep suits for the baby.

However, there were a few things that needed to be made clear first.

"Yes, she's doing very well now, and so is the baby." Reed assured the press, glad that he could now say that with confidence.

"Mr. Fantastic, what is the sex of the baby?" One reporter asked.

"We had a boy." He confirmed proudly. More cameras flashed.

"Any decisions on a name?" One shouted.

Reed grinned. "We've decided to call him Franklin Jonathan Benjamin Richards." He said, announcing the name that he and Sue had decided on less than ten minutes before hand.

At this, the three men beside him all turned to him, looking at him with a strange, yet proud, awe. "You're naming him after me, Ben and Dad?" Johnny asked him, the first of the three to find his voice.

Reed nodded, dropping his voice so that the photographers and reporters didn't hear him. "Well, after me, you're the most important men in his life."

His introduction to fatherhood had been a rocky road, but he knew that the worst was over. Now, there were only good days and happiness ahead of them; him, his wife, and their son. Mr. Fantastic had never felt quite as fantastic as he did at that moment, knowing that the people he loved most were alive, healthy and happy. Because, at the end of the day, superpowers didn't matter if you couldn't save the lives of the people you loved. Reed had learnt that, just like he had learnt that you only had to love someone to save them, like he and Sue had saved each other.

Besides, being a father was _much better _than being a superhero.

**FIN**

**That was it guys...the final chapter. I really hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed reading your reviews. Maria, you've been an absolute star! I can still remember those long nights (well, afternoons for you) swapping quotes and ideas...somehow managing to include all of them!  
Thank you to all those who have reviewed! I love you all and you all get mental cookies!  
Sammy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**


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